'Teenage Cancer Trust helped us squeeze a lifetime out of precious moments with my sister - and now we're raising money to express our gratitude in her memory'

“She then had a brief period of remission for a few years,” explains one of her two sisters, 31-year-old Anna. “She used that to resume her studies, doing music production at Leeds Conservatoire. She graduated from there and received their lifetime achievement award in recognition of all the struggles she had been through.

"But unfortunately, the innovative treatment that Pippa had been on that allowed her to have that period of remission stopped working. She passed away last March – she was only 25. It’s been such a difficult period for our family, but also not to underestimate the impact on the community of Ilkley too…

"Pippa was very much a creative, loving, extroverted person. One of her final wishes, which she was strong enough to be able to articulate before she passed away, was that she wanted to have an annual music festival in her memory, raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust.”

PippaFest is taking place for the first time on May 4, the culmination of tireless planning by Anna, Pippa’s other sister and professional violinist 30-year-old Lara, and their mum Gill. Tickets for the event, in the grounds of Ilkley’s Ghyll Royd School, are already sold out and Anna, who took part in the London Marathon at the weekend for the Teenage Cancer Trust, is hopeful of generating a significant amount of money for the charity to add to the more than £28,000 already raised by friends and family in Pippa’s memory.

“I think Pippa would be so moved and proud of the community effort and support and how her legacy will live on through all of this fundraising,” says Anna, who now lives in Nairobi, Kenya. “One of the things I think Pippa would be extra proud of with the festival is that we’re giving the stage to a lot of really talented up and coming artists, and a lot of female northern talent too.”

The Teenage Cancer Trust supported Pippa and her family from diagnosis right through to her final days. As well as providing specialised nursing care and support, the charity also funds young adult units at hospitals across the country –specially designed spaces where young people facing cancer can feel at home, meet others their age, welcome family and friends, and get care from dedicated nurses and youth support teams.

“Our reality was everyone else’s nightmare,” Anna reflects. “It’s the most gut-wrenching, traumatic experience you could possibly go through. Me, Lara and Pippa were and always will be a three. We’re incredibly close, we’d literally do anything for one another and to be confronted with a reality that you’re going to lose that person so young is impossible. Pippa met it with complete grace and dignity. She never complained about what had happened to her, she never got bitter. She was always trying to seek light in the darkness.”

The charity made the “unimaginably difficult experience much more bearable”, Anna says, and enabled Pippa and the family to “squeeze a lifetime out of the time we had left together”. "Pippa celebrated her 25th birthday in the TCT lounge. She also got married in the hospital under a special dispensation and we celebrated her wedding in that lounge. TCT is just this incredible charity and we can’t imagine Pippa and all of us going through what we did without them.”

"When you know deep down you’re going to lose somebody forever, time is literally the most precious thing,” Anna continues. “We never once had to worry about having to leave the hospital after visiting hours or squeezing in rotas of one person in, one person out.

"That was life-changing and that’s why we want to fundraise, so that other families can have that same support…We’re doing all of this to keep Pippa’s memory alive and to ensure any other family and young person going through what we have gone through never feels alone."

To support the family’s fundraising, visit justgiving.com/page/pippa4tct