A life

Kathy was born in North West London at the very beginning of the second half of the 20th century.

She grew up to become a mother, teacher, counsellor, artist and community champion.

She was a very talented woman who never got the chance of a full realisation of her potential with words and graphic art.

She died at 59 - victim of a brain cancer that systematically robbed her of virtually every ability.

Kathy though would never, ever, describe herself as a victim.

Movie

Here is a brief movie of her life. It starts and ends with music which she herself chose for her funeral. The middle sequence "Anything you want" was used during our wedding ceremony in August 2008.

An obituary similar to this was run in several media

It is with great sadness that we record the death of Kathy Goldsmith-Bray, a founding member, trustee and vice-chair of Winton Forum. She was also a driving force in setting up and maintaining the Winton Carnival.

A Winton resident for more than 25 years and known then to the children simply as "Mrs Goldsmith", Kathy was a popular teacher at Elmrise Primary School until rheumatoid arthritis forced her early retirement in 2002.

Kathy then retrained as a psychological counsellor and gave more than 1000 hours of voluntary service to the National Health Service. At the same time she began to fulfil her lifelong ambition of gaining a degree in art.

In late 2006 she became a project worker on a National Children's Home pilot scheme to help families in difficulty. It was her dream job, but only a few weeks after joining the team, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the brain.

She married Mel, her partner of 20 years, in August 2008 and conducted her two and a half year cancer battle with bravery, dignity and humour. Throughout that time she never gave up and continued to display her characteristic warmth, kindness and consideration for other people.

Kathy died a month after her 59th birthday and a couple of weeks after her first wedding anniversary.

You can learn more about her life from the eulogy delivered at her funeral.

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