Born in a small farming village in Essex, England, Susan Campany (1942-2013) worked for a large mining company in London, England, as secretary to the chief mining engineer. She and her family immigrated to Canada in 1972. She met and married Jim Lewis in 1998, and the two settled in Clearwater, BC. Over the following decades, Susan worked alongside her husband in the operation of numerous placer and hardrock mining ventures throughout BC and Yukon. She liked to say, "If a person from the heart of the English countryside can learn to gold pan and enjoy it, anyone can!”