AN OSWESTRY family have come together to raise £1,000 for a leading cancer charity, despite feeling let down by a fundraising event.

After her sister Emma Williams passed away last year with cervical cancer, aged just 36, Abbie Williams, 20, and her family rallied around to raise money for Marie Curie – a charity dedicated to supporting people with terminal illnesses and their families.

Beautician Abbie and her nan, June Parry, organised a one-off charity event which successfully took place at Oswestry Cricket Club earlier this year – raising hundreds for the cause. And the cheque was presented to Marie Curie representative Julie Gray last week.

But it was not the only fundraiser Abbie had in the pipeline, as she and her sister-in-law, Sian Kettle, 25, had plans to take part in a charity skydive at Tilstock Airfield – near Whitchurch – in memory of Emma.

Unfortunately the skydive, which had been booked through a third-party agent, had to be called off because of bad weather, but the 20-year-old was confident that their fundraising plans would still go ahead.

And it was then that June stepped in to make the fundraising amount up to £1,000 – and Abbie was very thankful for her nan’s help.

“I’m so grateful to my nan for helping us get to the £1,000,” said Abbie.

“Me and Sian had paid £100 deposit each but the skydive in July was cancelled because of bad weather.

“It took a month to get hold of the man we booked with after it was called off.

“When I got hold of him, we arranged to do it again on a Wednesday.

“I rang the airfield for confirmation and was told that they don’t do skydives on a Wednesday.

“I felt let down. It was all planned.”

“Nobody could get hold of the man then so I reported it to the police,” Abbie added.

“The police tried to get hold of him, and Alex Busby Hicks at Tilstock offered to let us do our skydive with him instead.

“But we had already lost two days of work, we couldn’t afford to lose anymore.

“Being self-employed I was giving up a whole day that I could be offering to clients.

“We had already taken sponsorship for the skydiving so we had to tell everyone what had happened but thankfully they all kindly donated the money anyway.

“I did a skydive last year while Emma was still alive but this one was for my sister after she had passed away.

“I lost my sister in October, my granddad in December and my other nan in May, all because of cancer – so the skydive was so important.”

Alex, chief skydiving instructor at Tilstock Freefall Club, said that the company Abbie had booked with for her charity skydive, was a third-party agent.

“As far as I’m aware now, the sky diving company no longer exists,” he added.

“Whereas the company is not directly affiliated with us, we just wanted to be as helpful as we could.”