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6 November 2020
It is with a very heavy heart we at Nice Shirt must share the news of the death of one of our own. Caylee Hankins died last week after a 9-month battle with cancer – it wasn’t supposed to be this way. We all planned for her to make a full recovery and get back to riding motorbikes all over the world, taking the most beautiful pictures and making insightful heart-warming films. But, alas, this was not to be.
We first met Caylee at a motorbike flat track race. She was racing and taking brilliant photographs (in between winning her heats and getting into the final). Immediately we knew she was our kind of human and asked her to be in our gang – we are so glad she agreed.
Caylee was the most wonderful of humans, a lightning bolt of energy and fun who made everyone she met smile and want to be her friend. And there are many, many friends around world mourning her passing. Not least the children and adults of 5 villages in Gambia where she made 3 annual trips documenting the work of her favourite charity Run The Bases. They are planning a celebration of her life where the 5 villages will come together (a rare event in itself), that’s the kind of impact Caylee had on the people she met.
Our thoughts and love are with her and her family, they have lost a part of themselves.
And there, words start to fail us, we are in shock and deeply, deeply sad. We will each remember Caylee in our own ways but to all of us, she will forever be young, she will always be beautiful, and she will always be the woman with an intrepid, lionhearted spirit. Caylee Hankins. Forever 31.
(With thanks to Leonie Watkins)