TRINITY The 51-year-old sister of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas has died.
Pandora Cooper-Key fought cancer for 24 years before she was told she had a brain tumor that could not be removed.
Lawyer Esmond Cooper-Key and Lady Mary Gaye Curzon had a daughter named Cooper-Key.
She shared a half-sisterhood with actress and model Bonas and had ten other siblings.
In May 2012, Princess Eugenie, Sarah Ferguson’s daughter, set up a meeting between Cressida and Prince Harry.
After Harry was famously caught naked in Las Vegas, things got rough between them, but they dated until April 2014.
In May 2018, Cressida and his other ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy were guests at the wedding of Harry and Meghan Markle.
Cooper-Key was a ceramicist who used to work for Vivienne Westwood as an accessories designer. She said that her family had planned her funeral “thousands of times.”
At the end of last year, the mother of two was told she had a tumor on the left side of her brain that could not be removed.
In the hopes of getting better, she had been getting immunotherapy.
Pandora, from west London, was 26 years old when she was first told she had Paget’s Disease, a rare cancer of the milk duct.
She got better from the illness and had her first child about 10 years later.
She was told that doctors had found a sarcoma in her left eye, just a few weeks after giving birth. This was very upsetting.
As a very rare tumor, sarcomas are very aggressive. Each year, only a few thousand are found in the UK.
Cooper-Key was only given 10 months to live after surgery to remove her tear duct, but she fought for years.
Before another tumor was found behind her nose, one was found in her cheek and successfully removed.
She also had very bad seizures that would sometimes knock her out for days.
After eight surgeries to remove tumors and then cosmetic work, Cooper-Key was left with no muscles in half of her face and had to use Botox to make the other half paralyzed.
The Times reported in 2021 that she joked, “I’m the only girl in town who gets it free.”
Later, near the end of last year, she got a brain tumor that doctors said could not be removed.
She told Femail a few months ago, “In order to operate, they would have to go through blood vessels, which is not good.”
“So they categorically said in the first meeting, ‘I’m really sorry, but we can’t’.”
A death notice today called Cooper-Key: “Beloved daughter of the late Edmond Cooper-Key, and Lady Mary Gaye Curzon, adored mother of Bow and Nestor, so much-loved sister of her two brothers and eight sisters and devoted aunt to her nieces and nephews.”
Kerry Reeves-Kneip, Director of Communications at Sarcoma UK, praised Cooper-Key’s work to raise awareness about the disease.
“Being honest about her journey helped bring important attention to sarcoma and the problems patients face,” she said.
Pandora left behind a lot more than just the money she raised. Her kindness and strength touched a lot of people’s lives.
We are very sorry for Pandora’s death. Our thoughts are with her mother, Lady Mary, her sister, Cressida Bonas, her two sons, and everyone who loved her.
“We are so thankful for how Pandora helped our organization and other people with sarcoma.”
“To honor her, we at Sarcoma UK will keep working hard on our mission.”
“Pandora’s kindness, courage, and indomitable spirit will forever remain in our hearts.”