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On November 6, 2018, our beautiful 9-year-old daughter, Joanna, passed away in her sleep. This tragic event was a shock to our family and our entire community. Though this is a parent’s worst nightmare, we cannot succumb to the paralyzing grief we feel, because we need to stay strong for Joanna’s siblings, Isabella, Andriana and Raphael. Most importantly, we refuse to let Joanna’s tragic passing define her memory. We want to remember Joanna for her carefree personality and adventurous character. Joanna never let the fear of failure deter her from trying something new. This venturous character trait was contagious to anyone that was in her presence. Moreover, Joanna was always smiling and singing. She loved musicals especially, The Greatest Showman. After Joanna passed away, we found the most wonderful video of Joanna singing the film’s theme song “Never Enough” by Loren Allre. Though at times it is painful to watch this video that Joanna had made, we soon realized how profound the lyrics to this song were and how vital it was to hear Joanna’s voice sing the words “never enough” over and over. They became the guiding force in our family’s quest to never surrender to tragedy and loss.
In lieu of flowers at her funeral, we started a GoFundMe page. Our goal was to raise $10,000, but it remarkably reached over $110,000. Joanna inspired us to create The Joanna Sophia Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization to help find a cure for epilepsy, specifically SUDEP (sudden, unexpected, death in epilepsy). All the funds from our organization are distributed between the Epilepsy Foundation and children with epilepsy who cannot afford treatments. Furthermore, all work for the foundation is done on a volunteer basis and no funds are allocated to compensate individuals for their time and contributions.
This page is our official fundraising platform where we will be posting events in Joanna Sophia Ioannou’s memory. Our objective is to inspire everyone to have Joanna’s positive outlook on life, and at the same time help people who are directly impacted by epilepsy.
How Joanna can inspire you:
Work towards your goals; do not wait for them to reach you on their own. Do not be stagnant or overthink; be inspired to conquer your fears. Do not blame others for hurdles that you face; learn how to leap over them.Do not feel sorry for yourself, no one else will.
Joanna’s foundation encourages you to get up and accomplish your goals in life
