Sarah Merritt Foundation
Words from our special friend Margaret Noakes:
Sarah with her mum Margaret in Cyprus
I have always liked watching “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and especially the celebrity ones. When I knew Coleen Nolan was to be on, I knew I had to watch it. I had always liked the Nolans and my daughter, Sarah, was a real fan; in her teens it was the Nolans who focused in her ‘hairbrush as a microphone’ scenarios; in fact I think I may have an audio tape of Sarah singing along to a Nolans disc! I also liked ‘Loose Women’ and Coleen was a favourite. I was so pleased that she won £25,000 for her chosen charity and was really interested when she said it was going to go to a charity called ‘Saras Hope Foundation’ and I immediately went on line to read up about the charity. I was amazed at what I read.
You see, I had also lost my precious daughter called Sarah. The ages of Sara and Sarah were different and the circumstances different too but there were so many similarities. Sarah was 39 when she died as an act of brutal murder.
Sarah was a carer for a local care agency and on Thursday 15th March 2007 the lives of all her family were shattered when she was brutally murdered as she went about her work caring for vulnerable people in the community. Sarah had called several times at the home of one particular lady and had not received any response to her calls and was unable to gain entry. A week after the first missed call the boyfriend of her client let Sarah in and told her he had murdered his girlfriend a week before and that her body was locked in the bedroom. He took Sarah’s credit card and number, tied her up, gagged her and went to a local shop to buy some cigarettes and take money from her account. When he came back to the house, he says he smoked four cigarettes whilst they talked and then he raped her and stabbed her to death. He then left her and his girlfriend in the house and went on the run. As this man already had a criminal record and was on the sex offenders register, the police thought he was likely to be the murderer and they picked him up on the following Saturday and he later admitted both murders. He was given a sentence of ‘whole life’.
That man gave all her family a sentence of ‘whole life’ too. We know life can never be the same for any of us anymore but we do try to carry on and make something out of this life we have been left with – because we know that is what Sarah would want and she would have done the same if it had happened to anyone else in the family. She was such a fun loving girl and family times together were amazing – whether they were family get togethers for birthdays and Christmas etc or family holidays together in this country and abroad in the sun – especially Cyprus.
After Sarah’s death we set up a charity called ‘The Sarah Merritt Foundation’. Because Sarah was such a family girl, we wanted to do something to help families who were experiencing difficulties. We had a wonderful launch day in the local park where Sarah and the family lived. It was a Family Fun Day and so many local families came it was wonderful. One of the newscasters who came to film the event said ‘It’s lovely to see all these families having such fun together’ and that, to me, was the best tribute anyone could have made because that was exactly what we wanted to achieve – to see families having fun together just as we always had.
When I read up about Saras Hope Foundation I discovered that Ged and Julie had lost their Sara. As I said, a different age and different circumstances but so many similarites. Sara and Sarah both had brothers called Mark, both had been fans of STEPS, Ged and Julie now have Faye who looks so like Sara and we now have Sarah’s first grandchild, Ella, who looks so like Sarah. Sara and Sarah had the same personalities, happy babies and happy children and always putting others first; both smiled with their eyes. I made contact with Ged and Julie and a link has grown between us – the uniting link being our two precious daughters. As time has gone on we have discovered more and more similiarites – Both charities use a rainbow in their literature and the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ is very significant to both; even our collecting tins and buckets are exactly the same. Sara’s and Sarah’s grandfathers died on 27th December (different years); Sarah’s pet name for me was ‘Kitty’ and Sara’s grandma’s name is Kitty; both families have a link with Greek culture, Ged and Julie with Crete and us with Cyprus. The links just keep emerging.
Both our charities aim to help families with children who have difficulties and we want to see families having fun together despite difficult circumstances. As time has gone on we have discussed the possibility of working together as we believe it is no coincidence that we have been brought together. The Sarah Merritt Foundation aim to raise funds to help pay for the flights for families to spend holidays together at the Saras Hope Foundation villas in Crete.
Sarah with her step-dad Terence taken just two days before she diedCharity launch day
Sarah and her brother Mark
