My good friend Sarah Packwood, who has died aged 54, had many abilities – she was a scientist, labored in humanitarian help and as a catastrophe preparedness marketing consultant, was a gifted musician and singer, walked the Camino as a pilgrim, and educated to be a Reiki healer and a druid.
Her profession in help and growth took Sarah to South Sudan with Save the Kids, and to Rwanda with the UN following the 1994 genocide. Between 1999 and 2001, she managed Christian Help’s emergency programme in Kosovo. There have been stints in India, Namibia and Papua New Guinea, and as an adviser to the UK authorities, for 2 years on secondment to the Division for Worldwide Growth. From 2015 she was a contract marketing consultant, and was engaged on tasks with the UN till not too long ago.
Born in Lengthy Itchington, Warwickshire, Sarah was the daughter of Sean Packwood, who labored for GEC in Rugby, and his spouse, Kate (nee Allcoat). After Southam school, Sarah went to St Mary’s Faculty, Durham, graduating in 1991 with a level in biology, adopted by a grasp’s in rural useful resource administration from Bangor College. She labored at first for the Forestry Fee, however determined to pursue her curiosity in constructing a fairer world, and joined Christian Outreach Reduction and Growth in Kagera, Tanzania.
Sarah selected to remain nearer to house when her mom turned terminally unwell in 2015. Whereas caring for her, Sarah met Brett Clibbery, a Canadian, at a London bus cease, when he was within the strategy of donating a kidney to his sister Glory. The encounter, the topic of a How We Met characteristic for the Guardian, led to their marriage on Brett’s boat Theros in Canada and a handfasting ceremony at daybreak at Stonehenge in 2017.
After the loss of life of her mom in 2015, Sarah walked the Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago in her reminiscence, and in 2016 she and Brett walked the Camino Portugues collectively, dedicating that journey to the reminiscence of her father, who died in 2006. The couple then returned to the Camino Frances in 2019 and accomplished the Camino del Norte, alongside Spain’s northern shoreline, in 2022.
In addition to taking part in the guitar, ukulele, and varied wind devices together with the flute, penny whistle and recorder, Sarah had been studying the harp and loved songwriting. She posted her music on YouTube, was a member of the London Neighborhood Gospel Choir and in addition helped discovered City Voices (later City Voices Collective). Since 2015 she had practised as a Reiki healer, all part of her philosophy of therapeutic the world in micro and macro methods.
Sarah and Brett spent a lot of their time in recent times on Salt Spring Island, between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, the place that they had nearly completed constructing their very own off-grid house. Sarah had not too long ago turn out to be a Canadian citizen. That they had achieved quite a few lengthy crusing journeys, however Brett had at all times dreamed of crossing the Atlantic. They set off from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in solar-powered Theros in June however didn’t make it to their first vacation spot within the Azores – their our bodies have been present in a lifeboat on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, a number of weeks later.
Sarah is survived by two cousins, Norma and Roger.
