Hello and welcome to Jugs for Jugs. I am so happy you're here. Be that by chance or choice. My name is Megan and I'm the one looking at you from the left. Now, I'm no writer and I can't tell a joke to save myself so this story my be long winded or all over the place, regardless, I hope you read through. 

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I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1998. I joined a beautiful family made up of Dad, Mum and my sister, Emma. This was my unit, my little piece of heaven. My Mormor (grandma in Danish), would tend to stay with us as my dad was often travelling for work. Later, she would stay due to other reasons..

 

Mormor and I would often sleep head to toe in my single bed whenever she would stay and frankly, I adored it. It felt like a sleepover every night as she would tell me stories and I'd fall asleep, snoring away to her deep, comforting voice. Mormor was an independent strength. Someone who had seen more pain in her life than she ever thought she would allow. In her later years she had understood this, and she was glad that she had found her voice. I admired her immensely. This strength and courage which she often displayed but hardly spoke of had been passed down to my mother and my sister. 

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This registered more later in life as I would see this firsthand. My mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2004, so I was about six. Young and unaware, I never truly understood what was going on, nevermind that this so called cancer could be deadly. My mother's strength and hope often took over and she would never share how bad it actually was. Truthfully, I think I have the same tendencies to try to keep things joyful and maintain face through life's trials. But I do know that a positive perspective is essential to get through hard days. Mormor would often help keep that positive energy up around the house, especially when mum was having chemo therapy and she was too tired to do most things. Mormor helped me sneak spoonfuls of Nutella, so I was content. 

 

After two mastectomies and about five years my mother lost her battle, and Emma and I learnt that life can be cruel. There's a lot to say.. but to sum it up, we were heartbroken and the word "lost" and "numb" seem appropriate. 

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Eleven years have gone since my mum passed away and it seems like once my cycle of the stages of grief is finished it just begins a new cycle. But I think that's what was key to the idea of Jugs for Jugs.

 

I always wanted to do something to give back to a community that has filled up most of my life, but I couldn't run a marathon nor bake a cake for coffee mornings. That's where Jugs for Jugs came into being. During my second year of university we had a small project where we had to design for a company, my chosen company was Denby and I thought that they would benefit from running a charity campaign which gave proceeds to Cancer Support Centres. The Jugs for Jugs pun happened because "heck yeah, I'm the friend that makes puns and looks at you until you laugh." But I also wanted to retain some of my humour in the pieces as a testament to my mother and her joyful spirit. If the jugs can bring one smile or a bit of wonder out of a bleak day then they have essentially done their job.. from my perspective anyway. 

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I knew going in to my fourth year of university that I would be working on Jugs for Jugs, because this was a project which I was passionate about. But during summer of 2019 my Mormor fell and found out that she had metastatic cancer in her brain which stemmed from the lungs. Ultimately, I had to choose whether to stay in Denmark with her and help take care of her, or come home to Scotland and finish my degree. Unfortunately, we didn't know how long she would have and after much consideration I decided to go back to finish my last year as we hoped she would have at least a couple more months, if not years, left. She died my third week of fourth year.. 

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I've been at a loss for words describing how this year has made me feel.. but I am a firm believer in these words;

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"Maybe we suffer so that we can become stronger. So that we can understand and reach out to those who may have similar hardships later on." 

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This is the story of Jugs for Jugs. It's my hand reaching out and affirming that you are not alone in this. 

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All my love and blessings,