SACRED PRINCE. Cressida Bonas’s 51-year-old sister, Pandora Cooper-Key, has passed away. Pandora had fought a long battle with illness for 24 years, when she was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor.
Pandora was the daughter of Esmond Cooper-Key, a nobleman, and Lady Mary Gaye Curzon. She was the stepsister of actress and model Anna Bonas, and had eleven siblings. In May 2012, Princess Eugenie, daughter of Sarah Ferguson, introduced Cressida and Prince Harry for the first time.
Despite some disagreements, they continued dating until April 2014, when rumors about Harry being seen naked in Las Vegas circulated. When Harry and Meghan Markle married in May 2018, Cressida and his other ex-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, both attended the wedding.
Cooper-Key, a ceramicist and former designer for Vivienne Westwood accessories, said that her funeral had been “planned a thousand times” by her family.
A mother of two children, she learned later that year that she had an incurable tumor in the left hemisphere of her brain. She hoped immunotherapy would help her. Pandora, who was from London, had been originally diagnosed with Paget’s disease, a rare kidney cancer, when she was 26. She recovered and about ten years later, her first child was born.
To her surprise, a few weeks after giving birth, doctors told her they discovered a sarcoma in her left eye. Sarcomas are extremely rare and aggressive tumors, with only a few thousand diagnosed each year in the UK. Cooper-Key was told she only had 10 months left after they removed her tear duct, but she continued fighting for years.
Another tumor was discovered behind her right nostril, after one had successfully been removed from her face. She suffered severe seizures that often left her unconscious for days. Cooper-Key had to use Botox to paralyze the other half of her face after undergoing eight cancerous removal surgeries and subsequent cosmetic procedures. “I’m the only girl in town who gets it for free,” she joked in an interview with The Times in 2021.
At the end of the previous year, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor that doctors said could not be removed.
Femail reported: “For the surgery, they would have to go through the arteries, which is not a good thing,” she said in a conversation a few months ago.
At the first meeting, they firmly said, “We’re very sorry, but we can’t do anything.” Cooper-Key was described as “a devoted aunt to her niece, a beloved sister to her two brothers and eight sisters, and a loving daughter of the late Edmund Cooper-Key and Lady Mary Gaye Curzon, and a loving mother to Bowen and Nestor.”
Kerry Reeves-Kneip, Communications Director at Sarcoma UK, praised Cooper-Key for her efforts in raising awareness about the disease. “She was so transparent with her experiences that she helped raise awareness about sarcoma and the challenges patients face,” she added.
Along with her fundraising efforts, Pandora affected the lives of countless people; her perseverance and kindness left a lasting legacy. “I would like to express my deepest condolences to Pandora’s family, including her mother, Lady Mary, her sister, Cressida Bonas, her two children, and all those close to her, on behalf of Sarcoma UK.”
Pandora had a deep impact on our organization and the lives of other sarcoma patients. At Sarcoma UK, we honor her memory by doubling our efforts in advancing our mission.” “Pandora’s courage, kindness, and indomitable spirit will always live in our hearts.”
