After a year-long battle with cancer Kate went to be with Jesus January 2021.
To say that Kate loved Africa and the African people would be a huge understatement. Nobody really knows the countless hours Kate spent traveling (often on African style public transport) to visit isolated teams, ministries and YWAM bases. She was a true pioneer with a teaching gift and such a heart for the poor. She seemed to attract crazy situations, and we all benefited from her story telling skills that held us in fits of laughter!
Kate was British, but born in Amsterdam where she lived up to the age of 7 when her family moved to Southampton in the UK. She studied pharmacy at Sussex university in Brighton and, after qualifying, worked as a pharmacist there. She was part of the first ACET team to be established in the UK in the early days of the AIDS pandemic. In 1989 she joined a ministry team working with a church based in Crawley, UK for a year.
In 1993 she did a DTS at YWAM Harpenden and went on an outreach to Uganda where she helped in an AIDS and TB project. Between 1994 and 2003 she worked between being a a pharmacist in the UK and helping to establish the FACE AIDS programme in Soroti, Uganda.
She then moved permanently to Africa, firstly in South Africa and then Zambia. She traveled extensively around the continent teaching on HIV/AIDS, visiting teams. organising conferences and encouraging missionaries. In her last few years she became very enthusiastic about sustainable bio farming and started a small farm in Zambia so she could teach others.
At the end of 2019 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was flown to the UK by air ambulance. Even though she went through various treatments and courses of chemo, she continued to be positive and think of others. During the last year of her life, against many odds, she co-wrote a training manual to help ministries and YWAM bases think through food security, nutrition, growing methods etc which will make them more sustainable.
Although she will be deeply missed her legacy remains. So many people benefited from her wisdom, her smile, her stories and her deep love of Jesus.