When Lucia Theaker lost her father in 2019, the circumstances were "bittersweet". Thousands of miles away in Nepal, he was climbing Mount Everest Base Camp to raise money for Marie Curie when he tragically died after losing oxygen on the mountainside.
"But it was amazing, because he raised £11,000 in the end for Marie Curie," Lucia says proudly, "and I think to myself: base camp, Everest - what a place to be if that's the last place you're going to be. And he's potentially saved all those other people now as well."
The 28-year-old hairdresser explains her dad's story, and the impact his untimely death had on her mental health, as we sit on a bench in the middle of Victoria Park in Cardiff. Behind us, the words 'Hope is everything' are inscribed on the woodwork. This life-affirming adage is a fitting backdrop to Lucia, whose sunny disposition is unwavering, despite the nature of our conversation.
