Mother’s Day 2023: The inspiring south east London mums

Mother’s Day celebrations can too – of course - be extended to the men in our lives – the ones who have taken the combined role as mum and dad.

Here in south east London, there are many remarkable people who are making a difference, whether big or small.

Over the past six months, Newsquest south London has spoken with some incredible mums, or motherly figures, that deserve the upmost praise this Mother’s Day.

Anna Armstrong

Anna Armstrong and her husband Steve decided to combine their talents of baking and commercial to open the new “BusyBee cakes” shop on Southwood Road.

After finishing her maternity leave, Anna decided to leave her city centre office job and turned her career to baking.

She said: “Lockdown came, and I was working from home doing my usual office job, and I found that I was doing more and more baking and then I got doing some big birthday cakes.

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“Because I had more time on my hands, I was able to get really creative in the kitchen.

“Word of mouth spread, people ordering more and more cakes from me and we kind of had lift off.”

Janine-Rochelle Campbell

Janine set up a fundraiser to provide a memorial service for her “beautiful” son who was stabbed to death in Lewisham.

Teon Campbell Pitter was attacked as he was walking to Double Jab Boxing gym near the Moonshot Centre on April 13.

Mum Janine-Rochelle Campbell said her whole world fell apart as she received the phone call that Teon had passed away. Janine has since set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for a gravestone and a memorial service for Teon.

She said the memorial service will bring comfort to her and the family during a “difficult” period in their lives.

Susannah

Susannah, a mum from Bromley who is living with stage three ovarian cancer says early diagnosis can help towards a “better chance of survival”.

In support of Target Ovarian Cancer, Susannah expressed to the News Shopper that if she was diagnosed earlier, she potentially wouldn’t be at stage 3.

She said “Early diagnosis helps to improve the outcomes of treatments, because for people who are diagnosed at a later stage, you might find that it has spread and there's not much in terms of treatment options that they can actually have.

“So early diagnosis is much better than having a diagnosis at a later stage.

“I'm thankful that you know, even though my diagnosis of ovarian cancer was at stage three, having had surgery they were able to get out everything and even though unfortunately came back, at least I'm still in a good place now because it has been well contained and controlled.”

Mary Ann Clifton known as Rosina

Rosina has revealed her secret to a long and happy life is “a tipple at lunchtime” after turning 108 years old.

Rosina celebrated her 108th birthday on Thursday, March 16 at Care UK’s Foxbridge House in Orpington, Kent, as the team organised an afternoon tea party for the great-great-grandmother.

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She encouraged a midday “tipple” when asked the key to a long, happy life.

“(It’s) never done me any harm,” she said.

“Work hard but party harder – a bit of hard work won’t hurt you.”

Ms Clifton was born on March 16 1915 in Lambeth, south London, and after finishing school, followed her passion for fashion.

Navinder Molyneux

Navinder, a mother-of-two who once “couldn’t even run to the front door” took on the London Marathon late last year in memory of her father who died 10 years ago from heart failure.

Navinder said her world “came to a complete halt” when her beloved father Dershan Singh Sandhu died.

It spurred her on, however, to raise money for heart research as part of his legacy.

The 39-year-old payroll administrator, who was part of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) team, said she hopes her efforts can help gather the money needed “to help stop other families going through what we have”.