“my mum died the week of my wedding”

“When Mum found out she had cancer, she didn’t cry. She was more worried about telling my sibling”

My mum Susan was vivacious, charismatic and the life of the party. She was always the first person on the dance floor. Mum was loyal as anything and incredibly protective of her family. You always knew when she was coming because you could hear the jingling of her gold bracelets. She was immaculately polished, but blue-collar to the bone. She was black and white, hard and fast. She was all about authenticity; if you weren’t real, you couldn’t hang out with Susan.

My relationship with my mum was challenging when I was younger. She owned a fashion business with my dad and worked from 6am to 8pm most days, with overseas trips to Paris, New York and London every six weeks. I was the youngest of four kids (Ashley, 45, Sally, 42, and Josh, 32), and until I was 13 I was effectively raised by nannies.

My parents separated when I was 17 and when my dad moved out, it was just me and Mum in the house. Her drinking escalated and it was really intense. She wasn’t a nice