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Jo Nash is a "proud Jersey girl, who married the Jersey boy of her dreams", but their fairytale took a sad turn after the couple's son was tragically stillborn.
Nonetheless, they turned that experience into a positive by founding a charity - and Jo is now ready to share more ways to help the island.
"Expecting our second child our family would be complete and I had planned our life ahead... the full-term stillbirth of our second son Philip changed everything. Following that devastating experience, we founded Philip’s Footprints to support families who lose a baby.
"In the early years, I never felt any good could possibly come from such an excruciating loss, but I was wrong. Over the years I have met some amazing and inspirational people and that we are now ensuring more babies get to go home is truly as good as it gets," Jo said.
And now the charity will be able to further that mission to help more babies, having announced yesterday that a screening of 'You, Me & Him' held alongside Judy Ledger, of BabyLifeline, with whom she started the Jersey Baby Bean Appeal in 2016, raised enough money to fund a seventh wireless baby monitor. It's now ordered and on its way to the Jersey Maternity department.
Pictured: Jo with David Tennant at the Cineworld screening.
Now that things have calmed down after a weekend of rubbing shoulders with movie stars including 'Doctor Who' David Tennant and Sally Philips, she told Express what else she would do to improve life in Jersey...
So many charities are meeting the shortfall in States budgets and plugging other gaps in service. An estimated £80million to £100million is raised/spent in the sector and without the many charities that provide a wide variety of services and essential lifelines to islanders, not forgetting the large number of volunteers, where would we be? We should be working together with the States - a little quid pro quo.
Pictured: A Charity Minister would reap benefits both for local organisations but for islanders too says Jo.
Let's take one example of how this could have worked with GDPR. The States could have mentored and/or offered expert guidance to small to medium charities who might not have the staff or expertise to ensure compliance. A Charity Minister would oversee and support the large charitable sector we have, which would benefit both charities and islanders.
There are times when Jersey is outstanding in its thoughtfulness, but there are other times we could still do better. As I write this I see that Jenny Stafford, who I met a few years ago with guide dog Pacha, received abuse and hostility from people who think she is faking her sight impairment. She is not the only one to have experienced this. It makes me embarrassed to be Jersey.
Thankfully, I do also see acts of community spirit and kindness which helps put some balance back in the Jersey universe. Good manners, kindness and understanding (or tolerance, if you don’t understand or agree) or just a smile are free, so please share them with someone else!
Pictured: Kindness doesn't cost a lot, but goes a long way.
Doing what I do, I couldn’t let this part of ‘things I’d change’ go by without mentioning tolerance of grief and the Elizabeth McCracken quote, “Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving.”
Birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, due dates, school starting, Mother's Day and Father's Day can all be difficult times for anyone who has lost a baby (at any gestation), child, or other loved one - and that includes our furry family members. Please be patient with someone who is grieving. That year of 'firsts' is so hard and grief takes as long as it takes - there is no time limit and in fact many people just learn to live with their loss, it doesn't disappear. Some days can just be hard on the heart for no reason at all, so please be kind to us.
Who remembers playing sardines? That’s Jersey. Way beyond comfortable capacity, and much as it is a beautiful, vibrant place to live, the quality of life is decreasing. Our rush hour is now 'rush hours’, there is increasing demand on services and resources, our classrooms are too full, more and more housing is being squeezed in with no room to breathe - or park.
Pictured: One thing Jo doesn't want is for Jersey too become too crowded.
We are just too 'peopley'! I know we can’t go back in time, but let’s put net immigration on pause and come up with a plan to make it the best it can be for everyone. Squeezing more people in will not improve the situation. I don’t want to be living in Hong Kong Jersey-style when I retire!
Let's keep pushing to improve our environment. Make every newbuild eco-friendly, make it compulsory to include rainwater harvesting and recycling - we need to protect our water supplies - and some form of renewable energy.
Pictured: With so much sun, Jersey could use more solar panels.
That we are the sunniest place in the British Isles is great for solar panels! Compost heaps, plastic free, litter picking, recycling - we can all play our part to look after our island. And please let's include island wide curb-side recycling too, as my parish doesn't still do it!
We're motorbike fans in our house and talking about 'Doctor Who' coming to our celebrity screening, our youngest son misheard, turned and said, "The Doctor? Valentino Rossi?!" (Sadly not, haha, but a proud moment that he knows his doctors!)
Pictured: Cruising down to work in your bike sounds cool but what do you do when there is nowhere to park it?
I used to motorbike for many years, but it's not easy to strap a car seat on the back so I reluctantly had to move to four wheels. I’d love to get back on two wheels one day, but when I come into town after 9:00 I see all the spaces are taken. Parish of St Helier, please can we have some more motorbike parking?!
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not Bailiwick Express.
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