Funeral for Alison Cotterill-Drew

Alison was a lovely, kind and very supportive lady. She worked hard to support her local community, she was one of the founding members and chairperson to the Friends of Kirk Hallam Lake and Meadows group. The friends group worked hard to protect and maintain the lake and meadows and help local people to understand and respect the wildlife and wildflowers abundant on the site.

As well as managing the group, Alison was an extremely gifted painter. After her Illustration course at Derby University, she developed a passion for painting. As a result of this, Alison filled the house with paintings, creating her own wonderful art gallery that we all loved.

Alison received an Erewash Mayors award and Derbyshire Excellence in the Community Award for the hard work she put into organisation and event management within the group. Alison suffered from bipolar disorder and eventually had to leave the group after a long hospital admission.

In the last four years Alison had also lost her son Cameron and had numerous other deaths in the family including her brother and mother. Cameron also suffered from bipolar disorder and after so much death in the family Alison was never quite the same again and was still grieving her losses.

Then in late September of 2023 Alison was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it was so advanced that no treatment would save her. Alison was given 3-6 months to live. She was very brave and wanted to die at home with her partner David and daughter Imogen present, but unfortunately she spent her last few days in hospital but with nurses and family beside her during her last hours. She was in a lot of pain and was desperate for her suffering to end.

Alison will be very much missed by all her family and friends, please help us to give her the funeral she deserves. All she wanted was a simple cremation, but we would like to take her to the crematorium by a horse drawn hearse. Alison absolutely adored horses all her life so we thought this is something she would be very happy with.