Claire Prosser | The Tom Clabburn Memorial Fund

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Posted by PaulClabburn on Jun 3, 2015 in 2015, Awareness, BBC, Claire Prosser, Life After Tom, Tom Clabburn

Claire’s ‘Life After Tom’ documentary now available on BBC iPlayer Radio.

Life After Tom on BBC iPlayer Radio.

Claire’s BBC Radio 4 documentary, ‘Life After Tom’, is now available on BBC iPlayer Radio.

You can find it here.

The programme, written and narrated by Claire, was first broadcast in October, 2008, and describes how she navigated the first 12 months after Tom’s death.

That it is now available on demand is due to the efforts of Claire’s friend – and producer of the programme – Linda Pressly.

Having listened to it again, it seems to me to have withstood the test of time and therefore stands as a fitting tribute to Claire, both as a mother and as a journalist.

PC, June 3, 2015.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 19, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser, Donations, Tom Clabburn

You’ve done it – you’ve raised more than £100,000 for CRY

Tom and Claire

Claire wanted to raise £100,000 for CRY in Tom’s memory – and we asked you if you’d help to achieve that in memory of both Tom and Claire.

You’ve done that and more.

As of this morning, donations to what is now Tom and Claire’s Fund stand in excess of £110,000 since we first began fund-raising in 2008. There is still more money coming in.

All we can say is a huge “THANK YOU”.

Our focus will remain on working with CRY to provide free heart screenings for young people in west London. Our belief – Claire’s belief – is that screening can make a difference.

It can help to challenge a dreadful statistic – that 12 young people aged 14-35, like Tom, die each week from an undiagnosed heart condition.

Since we lost Tom in 2007, CRY’s figures suggest a further 4,500 young people will have died. The vast majority could have been saved with a simple test:

One in every 300 that CRY tests – and CRY has tested more than 70,000 young people – will be identified with a potentially life threatening condition.

One in every 100 will have a condition that is less serious but could cause problems in later life.

Like other health screening programmes, it can’t yet identify all those at risk. But in Italy, where screening is mandatory for all young people engaged in organised sport, they have reduced the incidence of young sudden cardiac death by 89%.

To read more on the latest research, click here.

But for now, all we’d like to say once again is a huge “THANK YOU”.

Paul and Ellen x

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 16, 2014 in 2014, Book sale, Claire Prosser

Ruth’s team do Claire and @CRY_UK proud

Ruth, front row, second from left, and team.

More than £1,600 was raised at a book and cake sale in memory of Claire Prosser and Tom Clabburn at the BBC’s New Broadcasting House on Monday, December 15.

Claire’s close friend and colleague, Ruth Akins, organised the event: “Claire was due to run the sale in memory of her son, Tom. The Friday before Claire died, she was concerned about the sale and I had promised her it would be fine. I never thought I’d be running the sale in her memory as well as her son’s. “

All the money raised will go to the re-named Tom and Claire’s Fund, which supports the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young.

Ruth continued: “It was astonishing to see how many books Claire had already collected only weeks ago from her former 5 Live colleagues at BBC North. With help from various people from around the BBC, we had more than 300 books on sale.

“We also had a large number of delicious cakes to sell too, thanks to the generous bakers we had in our midst. An extra thanks goes to Lorna Donlon who, as at previous sales, has always provided us with the most gorgeous cakes. “

Helpers from within the BBC were joined by Claire’s close family friends and Ruth said: “I think they found some comfort in meeting Claire’s colleagues and hearing their happy memories of her.

“Nothing will bring Claire or Tom back to us but running events such as this helps us keep their memory alive and continues their legacy.”

Claire’s husband, Paul Clabburn, said: “I was very touched but not the least surprised when Ruth said she was going to carry on with the book sale as a tribute to Claire. That’s Ruth for you. Claire and Ruth were a brilliant professional team and very close friends and Ellen and I would like to thank Ruth for her support over the years.

“We are also, as ever, astonished by the number of helpers that Ruth has listed below – we are extremely grateful to everyone for their time and commitment. Thank you.”

Organising/Book collection and delivery – Gillian Dear, Geraldine Ryan, Romello Arulanandam, Matthew Turner, Isabel Turner, Gina Bentley, Dave Bentley, Kate Riley, Sandy Smith, Elaina Boateng, Suzanne Yates, Jessica Latimer. With special thanks from Paul and Ellen to Annie Flury for so many years of organising the 5 Live books.

Cake providers – Victoria Lee, Jane Kinghorn, Lorna Donlon, Geraldine Ryan, Dhruti Shah, Ruth Akins, Ronnie Macfarlane, Jane Saunders.

Book sellers – Sue Ellis, Jane Kinghorn, Sam Upton, Alison Lobo, Jacky Hems, Sue Howells, Isabel Turner, Felix Turner, Anna Eastment, Kate Riley, Gina Bentley, Suzanne Yates, Phil Thomas, Chandrika Kaviraj.

Cake sellers – Mariita Eager, Victoria Lee and Dhruti Shah. “Mariita was the queen of cake selling – they were sold out by 1:30pm and we didn’t finish until 3pm,” said Ruth.

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 12, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser

Claire Prosser: thank you and that movie

Tribute outside Munson’s coffee shop, Ealing. Photo by Vicky Pearson.

Thank you for coming to Claire’s celebration.

We had the service that we hoped for. Your support gave us the resolve to voice our tributes.

To those who sent kind words and apologies for not being able to join the family, we thought Ellen’s photo montage, set to music, might give you a sense of the celebration. Each song meant something to Claire.

Click to watch here.

Thank you for all the messages. We read them all, even if we cannot reply to all – there have been a lot! If you want to send us your memories of Claire to add to those we have already received, please do so. It helps.

As for us, we feel that the message outside Claire’s second home sums it up.

Enough said.

Paul and Ellen x

Posted by PaulClabburn on Dec 2, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser

The one and only Claire Prosser

Ellen and Claire: “Better hair than her daughter.”

Raconteuse, wit, journalist (old school), good companion, simply the best wife and the unique Mumma Bear. Above all a beautiful spirit and a woman of great courage. For the good times. All my love, Paul. Love you lots like jelly tots, Ellen.

Thank you for all the support. In the days and weeks following the loss of Claire, it will give us great comfort. We read your messages even if we don’t reply.

This site will change to become the Tom and Claire Fund. It will be the site on which we post information in the coming days.

We are going to arrange the biggest damn celebration we can for CP. It will be at St Paul’s Church, Ealing, and we will post the date on this site when we have it.

Claire’s great wish was that Tom’s Fund should raise £100,000. We’re nearly there, it’s raised more than £90,000 since 2008. So if you would like to make a donation to what is now the Tom and Claire Fund you can do so here.

In the meantime, we’d be really grateful if you didn’t call us directly and please don’t send flowers. If you were thinking of doing so, that’s very kind of you but we’d rather it went towards a donation.

Once again, thank you for all the support. Let’s do CP proud.

Paul and Ellen xx

Posted by PaulClabburn on Oct 10, 2014 in 2014, Claire Prosser, Ellen Clabburn, Paul Clabburn, Tom Clabburn