Adam and I often used to say to Becky ...'You're my favourite sister' and 'You're the best sister I ever had'. It was a joke- she was our only sister.

Beck and I were the little ones and shared a bedroom early on. There was lots of giggling, reading books under the covers and midnight feasts - not that we ever made it to midnight. I thought everyone’s sister must be like Becky. Funny, imaginative, hugely entertaining, and at times spectacularly loud and boisterous. As we grew up I met a lot of other people’s sisters, and well most seemed pretty boring in comparison, that’s when I realise how unique she really was.

Dad always encouraged us to play lots of sports. Becky was a pretty good footballer holding her own alongside the boys in the Sunday family games we played. She was what one would call ‘a physical player’. No one was going to get past her whether they had the ball or not and when she was bombing forward with the ball at her feet she’d do whatever was necessary to shrug them off. She also played netball, table tennis, tennis, badminton, cricket, and rounders, but Becky with a racket or a bat in hand upped the ante considerably and what ensued could end up resembling something closer to armed combat than a recognised sport. We had a dartboard on the landing- it was always advisable to let her win that one. Becky’s flaming red hair wasn’t simply for show, it really was part of her spirit.

Becky was responsible for the most embarrassing moment of my life. At the age of a 13, one lunchtime, I visited her school ‘Camden school for Goats’ as we called it. My real aim was to meet some girls. I was smuggled into Becky’s classroom and things were going quite well till I was caught out by Mister Lister who had had a tip off there was a ‘boy in the building’. I was duly frogmarched out, or should I say paraded through the playground full of hundreds of girls on their lunch break. Becky wasn’t happy, in fact she was furious and right in the middle of the playground screamed ‘but sir, what are you worried about? he hasn’t even reached puberty yet!’ Thanks for that one Beck.

Our home in Heath Hurst rd. Hampstead resembled a youth club at times. Everyone was welcome and the house was always full of fun and laughter. We all battled it out for musical supremacy. The soundtrack of Becky’s youth could be heard blasting out- either on her record player or playing her guitar or piano (with her foot always on the loud pedal) and singing along. Carole King, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Carly Simon, Elton John, The Beatles, Bob Marley and of course her heroine- Joan Armatrading.
‘Show some emotion, put expression in your eyes, light up if you’re feeling happy, but if it’s bad then let those tears roll down’ could be heard on a daily basis.

Beck was always open with everyone and had an ability to connect - not just on a superficial level, but really cut through and that carried on throughout out her life wherever she was and whoever she was with.

Sometimes without being fully aware of it - she’d take on the characteristics of those she was with- sort of morph into situations … It was probably a combination of wanting people to feel comfortable with her as well as not being quite able to fully supress the natural comic and mimic in her.
If she was with an Australian, she sounded Australian, Italians and the hand movement started, an east end cockney and it’s as if she’d been ‘living within the sound of Bow bells’ all her life. You could always tell when she was with Mel and Kash as her inner Indian would come out.

I enjoyed being a monosyllabic teenager but Becky wasn’t having it, always encouraging me to ‘connect with my emotions’. Well she certainly won that one in the end and over the last few years and specifically the last few months we had very precious times together. I am so thankful of that time now. My children Stanley and Connie adored her too, she has been very influential moulding their lives and my wife Cathy has lost a sister and great friend too.

Becky loved Cosis more than anyone in the world and it was a privilege to witness such an incredible relationship. Cosis and her son Aaron were always there making Becky as comfortable as she could possibly be- I honestly don’t know what we’d have done without them.

Becky taught me so much about life and living ……now she has taught me about death and dying too. She said she’d had a great life, done so much, been to so many places and met many amazing people. Her spirit will live on a for a very long time through everyone here today and everyone who knew her.

I was just so lucky to have her as my sister, the best sister anyone could ever have.