The former President of ESCIF, Mrs. Jane Horsewell, has sadly passed away. It was with heavy hearts the news of Jane´s death reached us during the ongoing 13th ESCIF Congress in Prague. All the delegates joined in a silent moment to pay their respect to Jane, ESCIF´s highly respected leader for many years. The day before, during the Annual Assembly, the delegates had bestowed Jane the first Honorary Membership within ESCIF.

 

We all knew Jane as a highly competent and committed President who was passionate in everything she engaged in. Especially, in pushing the SCI agenda forward and the creation of a unified voice. She never grew tired or gave up in fulfilling her tasks regardless how difficult they were. She was an inspiration to us all.

Jane was one of the initiative takers of the founding of ESCIF and took part in the first pre-meeting in Nottwil in 2005 and the founding meeting in 2006. Jane joined the board in 2008 and became the President in 2010.

 

It was not only with in the ESCIF member organisations that Jane was highly respected and well known. Jane was also one of the initiative takers in the Global SCI Consumer Network. During the years, her network with consumer organisations outside Europe grew larger and larger and ESCIF´s idea of pushing the SCI agenda, creating of a unified voice and advocate for people living with SCI spread over the world.

 

Jane was also highly respected within the International Spinal Cord Society, ISCoS. She made ISCoS aware of the importance of cooperation and exchange of experience between the health professionals and the consumers. Jane organised the first Consumer Workshop in the ISCoS Congress and today it is an integrated part during the ISCoS Congresses to highlight the consumer perspectives. Jane was invited to be the first consumer keynote speaker in the history of ISCoS during the ISCoS Congress in Istanbul in 2013.

 

Sadly, Jane lost her lifetime partner and husband, Andy Horsewell, earlier this year. The loss of Andy was of course hard for Jane especially since Jane has been struggling with a severe illness for last couple of years.

 

Most importantly is that for us Jane was not only a leader she was also a very good friend. She knew all the delegates within ESCIF and always made sure to talk to us all.  She will be greatly missed and we send our condolences to Jane´s daughter, Rebecca, and the rest of her family.

 

Jane´s funeral will be on Thursday, 16th August, in Copenhagen and ESCIF will be present to pay our respect to our President. The family has asked us to inform people that instead of flowers, Jane would have appreciated donations to ESCIF.