The first thing most people noticed about Anne-Marie was how devastatingly beautiful she was and then they realised this striking beauty was her plainest feature. AM was kindness personified and this coupled with her empathetic nature made her a beacon for others to turn to in their time of stress. AM had an amazing maturity and would dispense advice with the aplomb of a sage far belying her 24 years.
AM was blessed with an incredible intellect combined with great oratory skills, these made her a remarkable friend or a formidable adversary. She took these skills into the city and carved out a very successful career in equity derivatives at Goldman Sachs for most of the 5 years she spent in banking. This gave her the opportunity to use her language skills particularly Italian which she loved so much and spoke fluently.
AM also possessed a great sense of humour, it was really an innocent sense of fun almost child like. When AM’s two sisters Carly and Michelle took turns living with us, she’d terrify us all as this gorgeous blonde head would pop out behind a wall and she’d cry out “RAAH”. Carly and Michelle would scream the house down and I’d leap 6ft in the air and do some crazy peddling motion with my feet. Once they came back down on the carpet again, AM would come towards me head cocked back guffawing with laughter and her arms outstretched. The outstretched arms were twofold, one to comfort me and the second to administer CPR for the impending heart attack she’d just induced.
AM had amazing strength of character which was never more in evidence than at the beginning of 07 and she provided her family and friends with the strength to support her than the other way round. In January she was diagnosed with a low grade tumour and her uncle Kevin rasped his disappointment that it was the first time she’d ever gotten a low grade in her life.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and AM was asked to go in for a biopsy in March as she was very symptomatic, AM’s mum and I were called into a room and explained it was far more sinister and aggressive than anything they’d previously countenanced. After the biopsy AM’s health dramatically deteriorated and we brought her home.
AM passed away within three weeks and her mum beautifully surmised it as follows, she said “We’d all been so desperately praying for a miracle and we had one all along, her name was Anne-Marie”.
In order to counteract the sense of futility of the loss of someone so amazing and young, her family have teamed up with SDBTT to raise as much as we can in AM’s name and to help others to have a different outcome.
Keith Whelan
Anne-Marie’s Fiance
Fundraising
- Sian O’Riordan will be doing the Virgin London Marathon in 2010. Good luck Sian with the training!