Personal comment from Tony Best, former CEO Sense

Jessica devoted much of her life to Sense and gave us so much of her beliefs and values.We have taken on these as the basis of our work and this will be a long lasting legacy of her contribution

I first worked with Jessica in 1973, when we carried out a survey of deafblind children in ‘mental hospitals’.Her passion, and occasional outrage, at what we discovered resulted in more specialist services being established and this was typical of her influence and hard work.I came to admire this determination and, throughout her involvement with Sense, she continued to make a real and positive difference to our work.

There are very many people in Sense who had direct contact with Jessica, as she spent many days visiting services, attending meetings and encouraging staff. Her personal interest and encouragement was always welcome and positive; it was clear that she had the wellbeing of deafblind people at the heart of her interest.

Tony Best, CEO, Sense