MARIE Curie Cancer Care is hoping to make Christmas a little brighter at its first ever Lights to Remember Service at Thaxted Parish Church on Thursday December 3 at 7pm. The service will be led by Rev Raymond Taylor there will be an opportunity for all

MARIE Curie Cancer Care is hoping to make Christmas a little brighter at its first ever Lights to Remember Service at Thaxted Parish Church on Thursday December 3 at 7pm.

The service will be led by Rev Raymond Taylor there will be an opportunity for all present to light candles in memory of loved ones.

Donations will be collected in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care's Essex Nursing Appeal which is aiming to raise �450,000 this year to fund its 63 nurses who are working throughout Essex.

Christine Pritchard, of Sewards End, spoke to the Reporter about the difference Marie Curie Nurses made to her father: "My father's main pleasure in life was to be in his own home with his family.

"He was one of the lucky ones who could have so easily been killed on a cold, lonely battlefield. So, many years later when he was losing the battle of a life threatening illness, everybody in the family knew of his wishes, to die in his own home.

"Nobody could deny this from a man who had spent six years of his young married life fighting for our freedom. The family could not have achieved his wish without the tremendous support of the dedicated Marie Curie nurses.

"Five years on, I still wish to say Thank You to the Marie Curie nurses for making my bereavement less painful, knowing we had fulfilled my father's wishes."

Marie Curie Cancer Care knows that having the choice to remain at home at Christmas is especially important and their nurses will be working all over the festive period, including Christmas day, giving hundreds of families the chance to spend one last, precious Christmas together.

Marie Curie Nurses last year provided more than 34,000 hours of care to people with cancer and other terminal illnesses in Essex, enabling almost 900 people to remain in the comfort of their own homes in their last days but for every family they helped there were three others that they couldn't.

For more information about the Lights to Remember Service contact the Essex Fundraising Office on 01920 468956 or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/essex