Three children will grow up without parents after their mother’s sudden death from a brain aneurysm.
Three weeks ago, Melbourne mother Joanne Blacker, 45, was volunteering as a team trainer with her youngest son’s junior team at North Sunshine Football Club.
She visited her parents the next day to celebrate their birthdays, but after returning home, she told her partner that she felt unwell.
Ms Blacker later collapsed and was rushed to hospital, where she spent the next two weeks on life support due to swelling on the brain.
She died surrounded by loved ones last Thursday after they made the heartbreaking decision to turn off her life support and donate her organs.
She is survived by her children Cooper, 12, Lana, 11, and Archer, 10, who are being cared for by their grandparents.
The tight-knit football club has rallied around the shattered family as they prepare to farewell Ms Blacker at a funeral this Thursday.
‘Jo was a single mum who did everything for her children,’ club member and friend Jeremy Hibbert told Daily Mail.
North Sunshine Football Club has rallied around Archer, Cooper and Lana
Joanne Blacker would do anything for her kids Cooper, Lana and Archer
‘Those kids were her world.
‘She loved the outdoors and loved AFL. She had hopes of playing in the women’s league but kept getting injured.’
He said the children are coping with the loss as best they can.
It’s understood their father is no longer involved in their lives.
Lana played the night after her mum’s death, where she kicked a goal.
‘They’ve been surrounded by their friends and are trying not to think about it too much,’ Mr Hibbert said.
‘Football has always been a safe place for them.
‘Lana was doing somersaults after she kicked that goal on Friday night.’
Joanne Blacker spent two weeks on life support before it was turned off last Thursday
Cooper, Lana and Archer are being cared for by their elderly grandmother after their beloved mum recently died from a brain aneurysm
North Sunshine teams wore black armbands in honour of Ms Blacker’s commitment to the club over the weekend.
Mr Hibbert has set up a fundraiser and is organising a family day to help ease the financial burden on Ms Blacker’s elderly parents.
Ms Blacker’s father is aged in his 70s and is still working – and will now have to help look after the three children.
‘We want to raise money for anything the kids need so they don’t go without,’ Mr Hibbert said.
‘We’re not just a footy club. We’re a family.’
Ms Blacker’s shock death sparked an outpouring of tributes online.
‘Beautiful, kind, gentle, Jo, you were taken far too soon. Your infectious smile will be with me always. Your amazing, talented children, your precious legacy. Your passing leaves a big hole in our family and their tender hearts,’ her cousin Rachel wrote.
A friend added: ‘Talented and creative, she was a wonderful mother to her three beautiful children, of whom she was rightly so very proud.
‘No words can adequately describe the hole left in all our lives.’
