The family and friends of a beloved mum-of-two who died in a crash in County Durham after being hit by a drink driver have vowed to fundraise in her memory.
Amy Purvis was just 36 when she was killed in a head-on crash on the A66 in Durham on December 14 in 2021 while she drove home to Richmond from a choir rehearsal in Barnard Castle. Her vehicle was driving eastbound when it was struck by a Nissan X-Trail which was driven by a 58-year-old man who also died at the scene.
An inquest heard the man was found to have a blood alcohol reading of 203mg per 100ml, more than twice the legal limit when he hit Amy's car. He also was found to have never held a valid licence due to suffering from epilepsy and had not taken his medication to keep his condition under control.
The dedicated mum of Sophie, eight, and Molly, 13, was a well-known figure in the community and worked as a teaching assistant at Carmel College in Darlington. A lover of music, Amy was also a leader and founder of Euphoria and Youthphoria choirs and taught singing and performing arts lessons, helping to build the confidence of young people.
And while Amy's sudden and tragic death devastated her family including her daughters, her partner Steve, and sisters Beth and Katie, they are determined to follow in her footsteps by helping young people. Now a team of ten is walking 73 miles over five days to raise money for young people to help them access tuition and equipment for music, singing, and performing arts lessons who usually wouldn't be able to afford it.
Amy's friend, Rachel Tweddle, said she was passionate about giving children opportunities and would make sure the choir was accessible to everyone. She also said that Amy always wanted to bring the best out of people whatever that was.
Rachel, 42, said: "Amy absolutely adored music, dancing, singing, and performing. She loved helping people to get the best out of themselves. The choir was not exclusive, it accepted anyone. Some people still find it really difficult at choir because Amy was such a huge part of it.
"Amy just wanted to bring the best out of people whatever it was and to help build their confidence. She always wanted to make sure they felt part of the group. She still had high standards but she just wanted people to do well.
"When we would have meetings about money, she didn't want to see anyone put out, she wanted to make sure it was accessible for everyone. She has left a huge hole in the lives of everyone, we're absolutely devastated."
Rachel said losing Amy in such a sudden way was and still is a "shock" to everyone especially since they had seen her at choir just before she died.
She said: "We all still talk about how much of a shock it was, we still get taken back to that day when we found out she wasn't going to make it. Our worlds just stopped, we couldn't catch our breath.
"We've never felt that way before, we're obviously been bereaved and suffered grief but we've never had that type of complete shock before. To lose someone our age so suddenly, it was just awful the way it happened.
"She was in the choir an hour before, we had all seen her, we had all been speaking to her, we could still hear her voice to then go from that to finding out she wasn't going to be here anymore was just devastating."
Paying tribute to Amy, Rachel said she was "formidable and inspiring" and said she was glad they told her how amazing she was. She said: "Amy was so energetic, absolutely formidable and inspiring, you would never forget her once you met her, she was such a special character. We used to tell her that all the time.
"She was so down to Earth and so humble, she never wanted the limelight on her, she always wanted to big other people up. But we used to tell her how amazing she was and that's something I'm really happy about.
"She was very close to her family, she was always doing things with them and they've all got musical talent in them!"
Before her tragic death, Amy and her best friend Cloedie Yeadon had planned on walking the Cumbria Way. But after losing Amy, Cloedie, Rachel, and Steve along with other family and friends vowed to continue with their plan and do the walk in memory of her.
Rachel said: "Amy always loved the outdoors and used to do Duke of Edinburgh work in the school she worked in and she loved to go walking. Amy and her best friend Cloedie had wanted to do this walk before she died but they hadn't prepared anything.
"Cloedie said she wanted to do this for Amy and to finish it for her and we wanted to do it with her. We want to just all come together and get something positive out of such a desperate situation.
"I think Amy would be really proud, she'd probably be laughing at us wondering what on Earth we're doing but she'd be really proud. She always wanted to bring people together and get the best out of everyone and she's still doing that."
A Go Fund Me page was set up to try and raise as much money as possible and so far more than £2,700 has been raised. Rachel added: "We have been overwhelmed by the amount of money raised already. We didn't expect people to be so generous so early on but we're just so grateful."
Donations will contribute to providing grants for children and their families to pay for lessons, groups, and equipment. Amy's family also hopes to set up The Amy Purvis Fund for Performing Arts in the near future to help children get into the arts.
The group is starting their 73-mile walk on Wednesday and will finish on Sunday. If you would like to donate to the Go Fund Me page, you can do so here.
Read next:
- 'Aggressive' Chester-le-Street fish salesman jailed for scamming elderly customers
- Chopwell man strangled girlfriend and dragged her around by hair after drunken taxi argument
- Sunderland drink-driver gave one of the 'highest' breath test readings judge had ever seen
- £1m Roker explosion victim lost everything and cat died when neighbour cut gas pipe and flicked lighter
- Elswick thug attacked girlfriend with mop handle and smashed through her window armed with a knife
