We’re sharing Sue’s story—a personal journey that began with the tragic loss of her dad and stepmom in 2022. Through her work in the NHS and a team fundraising challenge, she honours their memory. This is her story, in her own words.
I have worked in finance in the NHS for over 20 years and I’m currently the Client Readiness Lead for the implementation of a new finance ledger which we are currently working on the roll out across the NHS commissioner platform in England. In November of last year as a readiness team we started to discuss a programme wide step challenge and this very quickly grew legs and before we knew it we were announcing the challenge at our December event and it was being planned for March 2025. Our supplier of the new system set up a charity page through there Tech for Good site and matched all donations 100%. A lot of the programme team were aware of what had happened and why the charity is very close to my heart so it was really lovely to get their support with the challenge and the fund raising.
The reason why RoadPeace was chosen was that on 16th January 2022 I lost my dad and stepmom to a dangerous driver. Within seven hours from the time the crash happened, my life as i knew it had changed forever.
I had experienced grief in the past but nothing that would ever prepare me for this sudden and unexpected loss, in such tragic circumstances, and as I have found out through my journey the added pressure of attending multiple court hearings added, what I felt to be additional pressure to an already life changing situation, which, only concluded at the end of March this year at the Court of Appeal in London.
Our police family liaison officer was amazing, but the service is stretched beyond capacity due to the ongoing carnage on our roads so I started to look elsewhere for support. After speaking with my GP, as I wasn’t sleeping, he recommended RoadPeace. You read of these things happening on social media and see them on the news, but you never expect that it will happen to you and your loved ones. There is very little coverage of the victims and their families and the impact these crashes and delays in the judicial system have on them – changing their lives forever. The support myself and my family received from RoadPeace is beyond belief and I now volunteer as a befriender to give back in memory of my two forever angels, and help support others who find themselves in the heart breaking situation I have been in.
If my dad and stepmom would want anything to come out of this it would be that they have helped in some way, even if it was just one person which is why our team fund raising efforts were so very important to me.
As a family we are also now campaigning to hopefully get the law changed so others don’t have the feeling of dread we had, that a driver responsible for the death of their loved ones is able to apply for and get their licence back prior to them being sentenced. The driver who killed my dad and stepmom in January 2022, pleaded guilty in June 2023, he was given an interim driving ban of 6 months, as this is the longest any judge can impose. However, due to the delays in the judicial system he actually was able to apply for and got his licence back in early December 2023 meaning he was able to drive for 7 months before he was finally remanded in June 2024 and then sentenced in July 2024. I set up a government petition which has now been published, it’s bad enough we have lost precious members of our family due to this dangerous driver, who was driving more than double the speed limit for the road he was driving on, but it was a kick in the teeth to find out he got his licence back and was back driving before the hearing and sentencing.
Updated on: 11 June 2025