Jessica with her daughter Pascale at a CMN support day.

In December 2014 one of our founding trustees Jessica Ma lost her battle with cancer. Jessica was not only a trustee to the Caring Matters Now charity, but also an amazing, courageous and inspirational friend to many in the charity and beyond.

Due to Jessica’s wise and tireless work in managing the charity’s finances over the years, Caring Matters Now has been able to grow from strength to strength and continually meet our 3 main aims to; support those affected by CMN, fund CMN research and raise awareness of CMN. Jessica’s expertise in finance and business were invaluable to the board of trustees. However, her contribution went way beyond this!

In September 2014 the CMN trustees met for our Annual Strategy Meeting and you’ve guessed it, Jessica was there despite at this point being very weak within herself. Jessica brought to our board of trustees many things; she was a clear thinker, a problem solver, she was known to respond rather than to react. Jessica was wise and discerning, she was willing to have potentially difficult and hard conversations enabling the charity to function to its best ability.

Jessica was passionate about Caring Matters Now and the trustees feel her loss immensely. Just a few days before Jessica died, Jodi received a phone call from her, and in true Jessica-style, she had called “to sign off”. Well Jessica may have signed off but her immeasurable contribution to our charity lives on! Jessica left a lasting legacy and we will forever be indebted to her. Jessica will be sorely missed and will never be forgotten within Caring Matters Now.

The Caring Matters Now trustees want to publicly acknowledge and remember Jessica’s outstanding and unique contribution to our charity. So, along with Jessica’s family we created the Jessica Ma Award. Each year we will be presenting the Jessica Ma Award to an individual or group who have gone above and beyond in raising funds for Caring Matters Now.

Each year five finalists will be selected by the CMN trustees and from those five finalists, Jessica’s husband, Peter, and two children, Jasper and Pascale, will choose a winner who will be presented with the Jessica Ma Award.

The only way to be recognised and have a chance of winning the Jessica Ma award is by registering your fundraising events here.

2019 Jessica Ma Award Winners & Runners Up

2018 Jessica Ma Award Winners & Runners Up

2017 Jessica Ma Award Winners & Runners Up

2016 Jessica Ma Award Winners & Runners Up

Jessica with Jodi, Lucy and Brendan Cole at the CMN charity dinner dance 2014.