Newton News Exclusive by Ron Eyley

The dream of cancer campaigner Anna Louise Swabey to raise £100,000 for research into brain tumours, the biggest killer of people under the age of 40, has come true. Sadly, the 25-year-old from Newton Aycliffe never learned of her great success. . . News that her milestone target had been passed was announced by Brain Tumour Research Campaign Chairman Wendy Fulcher on Friday morning at Anna’s  funeral service More donations are expected in the days ahead.  Anna died at home in the early hours of Friday, September 16, the day before she was due to marry fiancé Andy Bell. And nobody was in the least surprised when it was a case of standing room only at Wear Valley Crematorium as Roger McAdam conducted the Humanist Service which saw Anna’s friends travel from abroad and many parts of the UK, to say their final farewells. The service was designed to be a celebration of Anna’s life. Those attending were asked to wear only bright clothes – and did so. Tributes from family and friends during the service included comments like ‘truly inspirational’, ‘a real fighter’, ‘vibrant’, ‘loving, ‘incredibly talented’, ‘determined’,  ‘funny’, and ‘a brilliant light for us to follow’ as well as descriptions of how Anna brought ‘happiness, love, laughter and fun’ to all who knew her, ‘making our world a brighter and better place’. The service began with Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’, the theme music of Leicester Tigers Rugby Union Football Club, of which Anna and her family were avid supporters.  Frank Brown’s poem “Sometimes’ was read by Anna’s sister, Victoria, and was followed by Anna Kendrick’s Cup Song which contained the prophetic words ‘You’re gonna miss me when I’ve gone’. Personal memories of Anna were related by friends from various parts of Anna’s life – Anna Doherty, Olivia Cook and  Bex Davis, who were to have been her bridesmaids, and ‘bridesman’-to-be Danny Forth. There was music from Kodaline, ‘The One’, which Andy and Anna had chosen to be  played at the first dance on their wedding day, and Van Morrison’s classic ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. Anna’s father, Keith, delivered a moving and often humorous eulogy and there were more words from Roger MacAdam which featured Lennon and Maisie’s ‘Ho Hey’, the song that would have concluded Anna and Andy’s wedding ceremony.  Family and friends left the service to the instrumental version of Jubel by Klingande At the gathering which followed at Woodham Golf Club, there was an opportunity for well-wishers to post favourite photographs of Anna on a special Memories Board and to leave personal messages on a farewell tree.  (Rotarian Michael Dalton, who introduced Anna to the Rotary Club of Newton Aycliffe, where she became an honorary member, is pictured examining some of the photographs left on the Memories Board). Donations on the day of the funeral will be shared between the Brain Tumour Research Campaign and Marie Curie. Anyone wishing to make a donation to the Brain Tumour Research Campaign can do so by visiting  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ InsideMyHead  . Just days before she died, it was announced that Anna was to be honoured by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland with its highest accolade – a Paul Harris Fellowship.  It will now be presented to her family. Rotary’s national president, Rtn Eve Conway, said this week; “Anna was an inspiration to us all. She was an outstanding Rotary UK Young Citizen of the Year award winner earlier this year and a wonderful, beautiful and brave person who touched the lives of everyone she met”.