Anneline Gorman

Anneline was born in 1958 in Pretoria, South Africa and spent most of her life there. She entered the medical profession after leaving full-time education and it was in that line of work that she met her future husband – Jim Gorman – in a chance encounter. The pair eventually married in 1984. Two years later, Anneline gave birth to their only son Stephen, the person responsible for establishing our charity. Sadly, and due to medical complications, Stephen was to be the only birth resulting from the marriage. The couple doted on Stephen and their background instilled a strong sense of ethics and a desire to help.

In 1997 the family moved to the UK – Anneline’s husband was originally born in Scotland and they would settle back in the north and make a life there. Fully embracing her adopted home in the northern hemisphere, Anneline carried on with her desire to help people and now that aspect of her life extended beyond her professional work. She quickly found a voluntary role with Age Concern and over the years in Scotland, she worked in several charity shops as a volunteer. Always a giving and caring person, she kept in touch with her family back home regularly – especially with her mother and sister to whom she felt especially close. Family was everything and she was determined that the people around her felt valued and in return, they valued and cherished her positive and giving spirit, even and especially when they were thousands of miles away.

On the 19th October 2007, Anneline was to receive the devastating news that she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. Given just two years to live, she proved that she could be a fighter and vowed not to let the disease beat her. She researched alternative medicine options and health became very important to her. She completely changed her diet to clean eating and largely vegan and prepared for the long battle that was to follow. Within a year she had lost five stone and felt better than she had done for many years – she believed strongly that her lifestyle changes improved her chances of survival and left her looking and feeling better.

Two years passed, and so did another year and in February 2011 the prognosis was that Anneline had no more than six months to live. Once again refusing to take this devastating prognosis lying down, and this time with the added incentive of seeing her only son get married in July 2011, she travelled to Germany to discuss a course of treatment that was not available on the NHS at the time. The treatment was successful enough that Anneline was fit and well enough to attend her son and daughter in law’s wedding. The image at the top of this page is taken from that wedding day, a time that Anneline was led to believe that she would have just one more month to live – but she would live far longer than that.

Everything seemed fine for a while; the treatment extended her life and most importantly – gave her a quality of life beyond the six months that was projected in early 2011. In early 2012, Anneline fell ill once more and deteriorated through the course of the year.

Around Christmas 2012, Stephen and his wife proudly announced that they were to become parents for the first time. Once again, Anneline had reason to fight her deteriorating health and once again vowed that she would live long enough to meet her first grandchild. Anneline was able to keep that vow once again and on the 1st September 2013, Stephen’s wife gave birth to their first child, Anneline’s first grandchild. Within a matter of days, Anneline met her new-born granddaughter.

Anneline passed away on the 15th September 2013, two weeks to the day after the meeting that she had determined would take place. Her sister flew in especially from South Africa to be with Anneline in her final days, and to say goodbye to the remarkable woman that had so touched their lives.

It was not to be the last of Anneline Gorman. Thanks to the ethics she instilled, the desire to help that she demonstrated in life, and the warmth she radiated, her son Stephen established this charity – The Anneline Gorman Memorial Fund – to help fund research into ovarian cancer and campaigns to raise awareness of this disease. Anneline Gorman lived a positive life and that positivity rubbed off on others. It is with pride that the people behind this charity name it in her honour.