Alex Trelinski
THE DEATH has been announced of Jennifer Cunningham – the owner of a prominent Costa Blanca insurance brokerage and the founder of a hospice charity named after her son.
Jennifer lived and worked in Spain since 1992 and initially specialised in providing health insurance.
Prompted by regular requests from her clients, she moved into offering all general insurance products.
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The business expanded from its first office in Javea to a total of six outlets across the Costa Blanca, plus Los Alcazares in Murcia and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.
Her hard work ethic guided by honesty and integrity brought respect from Spanish nationals and expats as her business built up a gilt-edged reputation for trust with clients.
Retirement was never on Jennifer’s agenda in recent years – being very much a hands-on managing director.
Her decision to move from London to Javea followed a holiday with friends.
She told the Olive Press in 2022: “My late husband was much older than me and, after suffering a cardiac arrest, he wasn’t expected to live long, so we took a snap decision to move over to the Costa Blanca where the climate suited him and in fact he thrived and lived another 12 years.”
“Here I was on holiday having a lovely time and I did everything you shouldn’t really do when making important life decisions.”
“Just like that I saw a property I loved in Javea, put down a deposit, then went back and sold up in the UK,” she laughed.
“I was suffering from diabetes so the move gave us both a new lease of life, swimming every day in the sea and the Mediterranean diet really helped me,” she continued.
“The Spanish way of living, taking time to enjoy family and friends, also really gave me a new way of looking at life.”
But Jennifer wasn’t ready to retire and instead she started up what has become one of the most successful expat businesses in Spain, beginning with an office in Javea.
She also created the Paul Cunningham Nurses Charity in 2008 – named after her son who died from spinal cancer, aged just 33.
Jennifer was shocked to find there was no hospice care nursing available in Spain, and while spending time with her son at a Sue Ryder Hospice in the UK, she promised him to do something worthwhile in his memory.
The charity provides quality care in homes for patients with a terminal prognosis.
A busy life indeed for Jennifer Cunningham with her achievements in business and charity that will long be cherished and remembered in Spain
