ENTREPRENEUR SISTERS LAUNCH BOX OF HUGS AFTER MOTHER’S BRAIN TUMOUR BATTLE

Three sisters have turned the trauma of their mother’s brain tumour into a business to celebrate her recovery.

Sisters Anna Peters, Lucy Ambler and Sophie Morris launched online gift company, Box of Hugs, while their mother, Jane Peters, was going through treatment for a brain tumour. Now the sisters, in partnership with The Brain Tumour Charity, have unveiled two new “Jane’s Brain Box” gifts to celebrate their mum’s recovery.

Jane, 71, from Woodstock, Oxfordshire, collapsed eight years ago with two tumours on her brain, one the size of an orange. Anna, Lucy and Sophie spent many hours together while their mum was in treatment and it was during this time they realised how difficult it was to send appropriate “thinking of you” gifts when you can’t be by someone’s side.

Their mum thankfully made a good recovery and realising life was too short, the three sisters quit their jobs to launch Box of Hugs - an online-gifting company that enables people to send thoughtful gifts in the post.

Sophie Morris, 38, from Woodstock, said: “We’re completely in awe of our mum. She’s made an amazing recovery, despite being left with epilepsy and other side-effects. These problems have certainly not got in the way of her enjoying life. She now runs every morning, walks twice a day and volunteers in a charity shop.

“We always knew we wanted to do something to show our appreciation to the surgeon and medical staff that saved mum. Box of Hugs was our first step. Mum gave us the push we needed to run a family business together. It’s meant our family’s closer than ever before. Now we want to use it to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity to thank everyone who helped our mum, and help more people affected by the illness.”

REGIONAL ROUND-UP OXFORDSHIRE

Pioneering River Severn dig is broadband first for Abingdon business

Abingdon-based Gigaclear has become the first broadband provider to drill under the River Severn to reach two of Gloucestershire’s most remote and poorly connected villages. This significant civil engineering feat will deliver full Fibre-to-thePremises (FTTP) broadband access to 861 homes in Longney and Framilode.

The work has been carried out as part of Gloucestershire County Council’s Fastershire broadband project with Gigaclear, which will give more than 70,000 homes and businesses in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire access to a new ultrafast network.

Peter Pentecost, Regional General Manager at Gigaclear, said: “The scale of this civil engineering task goes to show how passionately we believe in the importance of digital inclusion for all, no matter how rural their chosen home or business is.”

World-class

Business bosses from some of the most dynamic companies across the county joined academics and civic leaders in Oxford to witness the launch of Oxfordshire’s Local Industrial Strategy.

Working alongside around 300 organisations, as well as central government, Oxfordshire’s Local Enterprise Partnership wants its strategy to position the county as one of the world’s top three innovation ecosystems by 2040, led by Oxfordshire’s global strengths in science and technology.

The strategy also hopes to build on the county’s recent economic growth performance which, between 2012 and 2017, saw 50,000 new jobs created in Oxfordshire. That’s alongside an average five-year business survival rate of 49.3 per cent for those set up in 2011, more than five per cent above the UK average, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The county is also one of just three net contributors to the UK economy, with a current gross value added (GVA) of £23 billion a year.

Oxfordshire’s Local Enterprise Partnership is aiming to double the county’s GVA by 2040.