Objects of Substance- The Kirsten Jack Memorial Leukaemia Committee

2009 Clare Florence, Anna Blocksidge and Jane Carpenter

In 1977, Kirsten’s friends raffled ‘George’, an enormous stuffed dog, and held an ‘Informal Dress Day’ to raise money for research into childhood leukaemia. In 1978, the Committee met for the first time with Clare Florence as the founding president and Mrs Mary Hukins as the first staff co- ordinator. In her 1978 School Magazine report, Clare offered a challenge to future Grammar girls: Kirsten would have been in this year’s sixth form and when we have gone, perhaps another form will carry on ‘Informal Dress Day’ for us, because leukaemia lives on … (Florence, 1978)

c1980 Kay Kimber and Mary Hukins with a Mary Williams painting for raffling.

For forty-three years, the KJ committee has responded to Clare’s challenge, through raising funds for