Maria Futter - The talented one with the most hair!

We have lived in Islington all my life it's a very quiet village with not much to do for children. I remember summer evenings when we used to go up Bawsey Sandpits.

Bawsy sandpits, an old quarry that they built a trim trail and play ground in, it has lakes and woods, it's mostly used by people walking their dogs.

We used to run around the trim trail I used to think it was great, running around climbing on everything.

For one of my birthdays Mum & Dad took us to London, we had a wonderful day we went all around London.

Here I am, I'd spotted a horse and was off, not even the guards are safe with me around, Mum was worried I was going to push him off to have a go myself.

Didn't ever fancy joining the guards, all that sitting still, oh no good for me, now a jockey I could manage that.

My dear friend Nicola Cowen, we met through the Country Music scene and became the best of friends.

Nikki suffered from Cystic Fibrosis, when I first met her she was very poorly but she never let it get her down, we became so close like sisters, we went everywhere together.

Nikki underwent a Heart & Lung Transplant which gave her a couple more healthy years, before sadly losing her fight for life in 1993 aged 20 years.

It broke my heart when she died I'd lost my best friend, But I'd learnt so much from her, even when she knew she couldn't win she never gave up fighting.

From that day I decided to make my life count, and to achieve as much as I could, because at 20 years old she never even had a chance to start to live.