Hi,

As many of you will know by now, on October 17th after a short battle with a horrendous illness, our wonderful mum Diane Burdaky passed away.

She leaves behind her 3 daughters myself, Lucy aged 30 and Annabelle aged 20, plus her 3 treasured grandchildren, who she revolved her life around. Unfortunately mum was only given 9 days notice of having a terminal illness. Before this, and during her 6 month battle with her rapid health decline, which left her housebound and suffering, the NHS gave her every indication that she would be able to recover and live a normal life, with a few minor adjustments such as oxygen use.

This sadly meant that my mum had no time to save money, buy a funeral plan or make any sort of financial adjustments to help with her own funeral costs. All we sadly have is a notepad with scribbled song requests, and her preferred readings.

Our mum was the most giving person you could ever meet, she would and had helped out countless people in their times of need, whether it be with financial means, cooking for vulnerable and elderly people, helping people with accessing mental health help, or purchasing toys/clothes to donate to those in need. Before she became ill she spent her weekends volunteering at a Cancer Research shop, and had organised several fundraisers to raise money for various causes, as she found true enjoyment in helping others. Reading the messages from people since she had passed has only cemented in our minds just how caring, helpful and giving she really was and now we are sadly having to ask people if they can spare anything at all, to help her.

We know times are so hard for everyone, and completely understand that not everyone is in a position to do this, but sadly we know all too well just how expensive funerals, flowers, wakes, headstones etc can be, as me and Lucy had to raise funds to do the same for our dad who died just over 2 years ago. The generosity of the public blew us away and as much as we hate to have to ask again, our beautiful mum deserves a beautiful send off.

Even sharing her page helps out so much, and please do not feel any guilt in struggling to afford a donation. We are all in the same boat and plead that you only contribute if you can afford to do so, mum would be mortified if people put themselves out at her expense.

After meeting with the funeral director the basic cost without flowers for the cremation and service is £4700 so every penny really does help!

Thank you so much for reading

Zoe, Lucy + Annabelle