Ruth Strauss: donate and help to cure cancer
Thoughts are with Ruth Strauss, who has died. Married to former England captain and director of cricket Andrew Strauss since 2003, Ruth was just 46 when she succumbed to lung cancer. She was diagnosed last December. Ruth leaves behind a loving husband and sons Sam, 13, and Luca, 10. They’re old enough to remember her. It’s not much. But you grab hold of what you can get. And you try not to let it go, or at least keep a whiff of life’s substance beneath your fingernails. What else gets you through the injections and organ galvanising drugs but a desire for a legacy? Faith. Yes. If you’re lucky enough to believe. There’s the excuse for a huge fry up, of course, and the hope that the pillock talking of it being a “battle” to experience something less sympathy inducing and commercialised, like erupting piles and towering genital warts.
“It is with great sadness and immense grief that we have to announce that Ruth passed away today as a result of her rare lung cancer,” says Andrew Strauss in a statement. “Sam, Luca and I will miss her terribly. Anyone who has met Ruth will know how loving, caring and passionately protective she was of her family and it gives us huge comfort that she was in Australia, the land of her birth, surrounded by those who love her, in her final moments. We would like to send our heartfelt thanks to those that have helped with her treatment over the last 12 months, in particular the wonderful team at University College Hospital in London. Ruth desperately wanted to help those affected by this terrible disease and we will be launching a foundation in due course to raise much needed funds to aid research and also to offer support to patients and their families.”
I know UCLH well. Too well, perhaps. The Macmillan Centre is wonderful. But it can only do so much. I saw Ruth there. She was warm, vivacious and charming. If you want to help, please donate here. It matters. Your money really matters. The people who set up foundations want it to.
Posted: 29th, December 2018 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
