June raised millions for Tenovus charity
A FAMILY has paid tribute to their loving mother who dedicated her life to charity, raising millions of pounds.
June Burke passed away last month, aged 89, and to many her life will be best remembered for her 70 years supporting and fundraising for cancer charity Tenovus, for which she was awarded the BEM (British Empire Medal) in 2016 for her voluntary service.
For the past 50 years June lived in Penylan, and she and her late husband John were instrumental in raising the funds to create the Tenovus Institute in the grounds of the Heath Hospital.
Her daughter Tracey said: “Together they raised over £12 million for the charity, providing vital funding for the research scientists there who developed the hormone therapy Tamoxifen, which is now used worldwide to treat breast cancer.
“She also led pioneering work to protect vulnerable women worldwide through the Catholic Women’s League.”
June was born in Canton and was six years old when the Second World War broke out. Her childhood was punctuated by air-raid sirens, gas masks and hasty retreats to the bomb shelter in the garden.
She escaped death on at least two occasions, firstly when their house was bombed in the Blitz and the second when she was forbidden to stay at a friend’s house, which was bombed that night with none of its occupants surviving.
After the war, June developed two interests that would define her teenage years and beyond – charity work and singing.
Her charitable work began early thanks to her father being one of the 10 founding members of Tenovus and June was out rattling collection tins when she was just nine years old.
Her singing career began after joining the famous Cardiff-based Snowflakes Choir, which won the first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in 1947.
Tracey said: “Mum was a beautiful singer and soloist with the Snowflakes Choir, who were regulars at the
BBC and recorded 78rpm records with Decca Records.
“The choir performed with the famous conductors of the day, appeared on programmes like Welsh Rarebit and In Town Tonight and sang at the first TV broadcast from Wales in Sophia Gardens.”
Her singing paid an unexpected dividend when she sang at a St Patrick’s night dinner in City Hall, Cardiff. In the audience was John Burke, who was to become her husband, father to her children, business partner and life-long companion.
Love blossomed and they married at Cardiff’s St Peter’s Church in 1958.
They were a busy, ambitious couple and by the early 1960s they had founded the first of their many successful businesses.
Tracey said: “They started with importing tinned fruit from Ireland and by the early 1960s had set up ABC Pools, which they ran out of an office below their flat in Four Elms Road off Cardiff’s Clifton Street.
“In 1964, they purchased College Buildings on Courtenay Road in Splott, the site of the old St Illtyd’s School. From there they set up a number of companies B&G, Multiform Printing, Objective Development and others.
“Many of the people they employed, mostly from Splott, became life-long friends. By the early 1970s she and John decided that she should step away from the business full time to spend more time raising their three children.
“Even as she stopped working fulltime, her charity work increased considerably,” said Tracey.
“She became chair of the Tenovus Ladies Committee several times and was out with a collection tin, sometimes by herself on cold days.
“Such was mum’s commitment to cancer prevention that when the charity had bought a mobile cervical screening unit and found they were short of a driver, she got behind the wheel and drove it around herself.
“Her commitment was lifelong, retiring from volunteering in the Tenovus shop in Whitchurch Road in her early 80s.”
June also stepped up her activity in the Catholic Women’s League both locally and at UK level, where she became the UK treasurer and later international secretary, representing the CWL overseas in Canberra, Fatima, Jerusalem and Washington.
Through her international work, she became aware of the barbaric practice of international sex trafficking. She spoke at meetings for years, raising awareness and even took the
issue to the Welsh Assembly.
In later years she slowed down on commitments and focused more on the church and her family, including her grandchildren, James and Tom who brought untold happiness and fun into her world.
June passed away at Llandough Hospital on July 2, and Tracey said: “In that moment ended a life that was characterised by selflessness, kindness and devotion to others.”
She was buried next to her husband John, in St Declan’s Cemetery, Ardmore County Waterford, Ireland, on July 25.