On the morning of the 30 September 2007 Julia Thomson was tragically killed by a drunk driver while crossing the road in New York. She died instantly and without pain. There was an ambulance very nearby at the time and she was pronounced dead at the scene. One of her friends who accompanied her in the ambulance remembered that she was a Catholic and so a priest was called to read her The Last Rights.

Julia was a kind and loving girl, who was a wonderful friend and caring sister. She will be greatly missed.

Her close friends and family are determined that something good, positive and tangible should come out of this senseless tragedy and we have decided to launch a Memorial Trust in her name. The main purpose of the Memorial Trust will be to support an existing private community project in the north of Brazil in an area where the family have a house.

The project, known as “The Garden of Angels”, involves the provision of crèche and pre-school care for the many poor children of the neighbouring town, “Favella”, and the surrounding area. It is through this project that their parents are enabled to go out to work in the knowledge that their children are safe and are being well looked after. Many of the children live in areas of serious poverty and come from broken homes or have very young mothers. The need to provide some stability and a sense of community value to children from such deprived backgrounds is obvious and the benefits are enormous. We feel that this project would be appropriate for Julia’s memory as she worked for a period for a similar project in Peru.

Our ultimate goal, if we achieve sufficient support, will be to provide and endow a new building “O Centro Julia” to expand the school facilities and provide opportunities for the older children to discover talents that will enable them to break out of the poverty trap that surrounds them.

In her 24 years Julia led a full, happy and adventurous life and, although now absent from our daily lives, she will never be forgotten.