A day for Jackson
Inglewood's Jackson West fought for his life, but sadly died just after Christmas last year of leukemia.
It began as a garage sale in her shed to help fundraise for a family in need, but Jodi Taylor soon realised it was going to be much bigger than that.
The Egmont Village resident's heart strings were pulled when she joined a Facebook group for Inglewood toddler Jackson West, who died of leukemia at the end of last year at the age of 21 months. His parents, Darrin and Rachael were struggling to pay for medical costs as well as the funeral and that's when Jodi decided to pay it
forward.
``He was an incredible little man. I myself have cancer and my daughter was born very ill, so it pulled on my heart strings,'' she says.
Jackson was born with blue/purple spots on his body and at 10 days old, after numerous tests, it was confirmed Jackson had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
The brave baby went through intense chemotherapy, spontaneous remission, relapse a number of times as well as bone marrow transplant before a final relapse.
Given only 48 hours to live, the wee toddler showed he wasn't giving up without a fight, proving doctors wrong for another 13 days, before passing on December 28.
Jodi a long with a number of volunteers are hosting a day called `Jackson's Market Day'on February 11 and all money raised will go straight to the West family.
``We just wanted to gather around them (Darrin and Racheal) and what we could do.''
The market will be held at the Inglewood Town Hall, starting at 9am.
With plenty of entertainment available for the family, it's geaing up to be a day not to miss, with activities such as facepainting, fingernail painting, an Inglewood fire truck to take photos with, a candy floss machine, a white
elephant stand, a DJ playing the Wiggles (which was Jackson's favourite), a cake and baking stall and a sausage sizzle, just to name a few.
Clothes, furniture and toys
which have been donated, will
also be for sale at the garage sale.
Jodi says donations for the raffle prizes and auctions have been generous, but more donations are always welcome.
``We are still asking for donations, whatever we can get,'' she says.
``We need things like sauce, bread, milk and sugar,'' she says.
Around 20 people have already put their hand up to volunteer but Jodi is eager for more to put their name down.
The events Facebook page already has 174 people listed as attending.
Donations can be dropped off at the Park City Church in New Plymouth. To contact Jodi, you can visit the event page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ events/208894032535894/ or phone her on 027 225 7256.
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