Nursery World - Goodbye to a very dear friend and great supporter of the early years

June O'Sullivan remembers early years champion Sue Chambers

I have been asked many times about who has influenced my life and I am usually publicly quite non-committal and say 'friends'. However, my dearest friend who shared my passion for Early Years died on Good Friday and she was most definitely an enormous influence as well as a supporter of all my work that led me to founding LEYF.

I first met Sue Chambers in 1994, when my daughter Clodagh was four. One of our first shared experienced was taking Clodagh on the march against nursery vouchers up to the Methodist Hall. I think that and our shared love of short skirts and high boots cemented a 25-year friendship. Not a week went by during all those years that we did not talk, sometimes briefly but more often long telephone calls, always covering something to do with education. Long chats on my journey home were made easier by mobile phones. A habit that continued until she was hospitalised a few weeks ago.

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