Home   News   Article

Subscribe Now

'She was like a magnet - people were drawn to her'




Family's farewell to brave Laura

A YOUNG woman who always put others before herself has lost her battle with cystic fibrosis.

Brave Laura Tanner, from Lambourn, succumbed on Sunday, July 3, following a 10-day struggle after her symptoms worsened.

The loss has devastated her family – dad Stuart, mother Melanie, siblings Stuart, Joshua, Tristan, Joe and Mollie-Ann – and fiance Liam Hansen.

And yet they spoke with fierce pride and joy of the way she filled her 23 years on earth, and of the difference she made to the lives of so many others.

Laura, a former pupil of Kennet School in Thatcham, was born with the incurable condition, which principally affects the lungs and digestive system.

Mr Tanner said: “Laura was well known and well loved.

“She was a very honest girl and very positive, too – she never dwelt on the negative side of people or of things.

“Every single morning she would get up and be thinking of what she could do for someone else that day.

“She was like a magnet – people were drawn to her.”

Mrs Tanner agreed: “She just wanted to look after everyone else and I can’t think of anyone who disliked her.”

Cystic fibrosis can come to dominate a sufferer’s life, but Miss Tanner refused to let it do so, said her family – and she “never, ever complained”, despite bouts of hospitalisation throughout her childhood and adolescence.

Her mother said: “She knew how poorly she was in the end and didn’t want to be in hospital, so we brought ‘home’ to her at the John Radcliffe Hospital [in Oxford] and we stayed with her for the last days and nights.”

Mr and Mrs Tanner praised the hospital medical team but said the facilities for families could have been better.

They are determined to fundraise to provide comfort items such as reclining chairs that loved ones can use when maintaining a bedside vigil.

Meanwhile Laura’s funeral is to take place at West Berkshire Crematorium on Friday, July 22, at 3pm.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More