Lisa Jessop has been gifted a $7k cross with a diamond pendant at its centre to sell and use the proceeds however she wants to support her situation, which is caring for daughter Grace Jessop, 23 months. Photo / Mike Scott
Lisa Jessop has been gifted a $7k cross with a diamond pendant at its centre to sell and use the proceeds however she wants to support her situation, which is caring for daughter Grace Jessop, 23 months. Photo / Mike Scott
It’s an act of kindness that started 15 years ago and has helped three families in need.
The concept is similar to Ann Brashares’ coming-of-age novel and later movie, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, in which four teenage friends of different shapes and sizes share a pair of pants which keeps them close as they spend a summer apart.
But in this part of the world, the pants have been replaced with a diamond cross necklace, which has a more important job, and has just found its latest home - with a mum slowly losing a second little girl to a terminal inherited condition.
It started in 2007, when Pukekohe parents Mike and Jackie Felton were trying to raise more than $25,000 to take their daughter Megan to Germany for stem cell treatment. Megan, now aged 18, has cerebral palsy following medical misadventure during her birth.
America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn star in the movie The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
After their story received national media attention, a letter arrived from a South Island artist, Mike Felton says.
“It said, ‘I’ve got no money, is this ok?’ and when I opened it up it was this whacking big diamond. Yeah, this diamond just rolled up in a screwed-up bag in the post.”
He took the gemstone to Stonz Jewellers in Pukekohe to be valued, and the owner - recognising the family’s story from the news - offered to set it in a cross for free.
The piece was then listed on Trade Me, but bids were falling short of the roughly $6500 still needed to get to Germany - until someone in Wellington simply asked, “How much do you need to make the trip a reality?”
The person then bid that amount, won the auction, paid, told Felton to keep the cross and vanished.
The diamond pendant. Photo / Mike Scott
Megan Felton, pictured with broadcaster Toni Street, has cerebral palsy. A diamond was donated to her family in 2007 to help pay for stem cell treatment overseas.
“It was pretty bizarre. They basically said, ‘I don’t need it, mate - good luck’ and that was the end of it. They [shut down] their Trade Me account and disappeared. I couldn’t even find them to thank them.”
Re-selling the cross would be “greedy”, so he and his wife decided that when the time felt right they would give it to another family in need.
It was more than a decade later when Pukekohe business owner Sharon England - a long-time friend of the couple who helped lead the fundraising for Megan’s stem cell treatment - found out her grandson Eli had a brain tumour.
The 6-year-old had several surgeries and started radiation, with doctors giving him a life expectancy of two years, England says.
“When they heard about Eli, Mike and Jackie arrived with the cross and gifted it to us to sell, so that we could create those memories,” England said.
“Sadly, despite everything the doctors tried for Eli, he lost his battle after only a few months … which is why we never got to do what we planned with the cross.”
She offered it back to the Feltons, but they had a different idea, England says.
“They said it was now mine to pay forward when I saw a need … Mike said, ‘When you feel it’s the right one, then you pass it on’.”
Sharon England, pictured with husband Bruce England, calls her family the "middle of the sandwich" in an act of kindness that has seen a cross with a diamond pendant shared across three families facing tough times.
She chose Hamilton mum Lisa Jessop after reading a Herald story in January about how she was hoping to swap unused plots at Hamilton Park Cemetery and Crematorium’s Apple Blossom lawn with another family so her sick daughter Grace could eventually be buried next to her sister. With the help of Hamilton City Council, the swap took place in February.
“If they want to get a whole lot of family portraits done, that’s fine. If they want to have a holiday and make memories, that’s fine. If they want to do a memory garden, that’s fine.
“It’s whatever they want.”
Grace Jessop, 23 months, has the same terminal, inherited condition that killed her 6-year-old sister Anita in 2019. Photo / Mike Scott
Grace has been diagnosed with the same deadly gene mutation - Pontocerebellar hypoplasia type 6 (PCH6) - that killed her sister, Anita in 2019.
The inscription on the back of the pendant reads Grace of Love.
“Like it was meant to be”, says Jessop, who also has an 8-year-old son, Cody.
Jessop isn’t sure how she wants to use the necklace yet. For now, she’s put the cross in a safe deposit box in Auckland.
Twenty-three-month-old Grace’s health is deteriorating faster than that of Anita. She’s having seizures, is suffering repeated viral infections and can no longer sit, crawl or grasp.
“She can’t pick up her food and self-feed, which she loved to do … and she’s eating less. I’m quite worried about that because she might need to go on to a feeding tube next year.
“It feels like we have less time than with Anita, which is quite hard … and [her care] is full on, but we’re managing.”
PCH6 alters brain functions and typically manifests in the prenatal period. It’s inherited when the mutation gene is passed on from both parents.
Earlier this year, a friend set up a Givealittle page which had helped Jessop pay for unfunded therapy, treatment and equipment, such as a specialised buggy for Grace.
Now she’s considering whether to hold on to the cross, so she can one day pass it on to another family in need, or sell it to pay for things Grace would enjoy - like taking her animal-loving daughter to zoos around the country, and making memories with Cody.
Whatever the future holds, the unexpected act of generosity has already given her family the best gift they could imagine - a reminder that they’re not alone, Jessop says.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s like, wow, someone cares about us, you know?”
