I’ve recently changed my walking route in order to compensate for the increasingly dark mornings. It’s far safer to face early-bird commuter traffic with street lights and pavements rather than dark and narrow country lanes.
My new walking route takes me past a very significant house in our village. It was the house that saw a tragedy that left our community stunned and despondent. And passing it never fails to remind me of the reason why I’m risking nervous breakdown in organizing our upcoming charity walk.
In September of 2007, Four year old Ryan was spending the weekend with his father, Christopher.
His 14 year old sister, Donna, arrived to collect Ryan and return him to their mum, Valerie. When Donna tried to leave the house however she found the door was locked.
Christopher told Donna that he was going to kill her and Ryan, and then he stabbed her over 13 times, causing multiple injuries to her face, chest, abdomen, arm, and thigh. Miraculously Donna managed to unlock the door and escape to the street where she was found by a passer-by. Unfortunately Ryan was left in the house with his father, who murdered him.
It later emerged that Christopher killed his son and attempted to kill Donna in order to “punish” Valerie for leaving him and starting another relationship.
There aren’t words profane and foul enough to convey how much of a bastard Christopher is. The death sentence is too good for him. I hope every day of his long, long prison sentence is utter torment both physically, emotionally and psychologically. And it’s a shame that I don’t believe in a hell, because I’d dearly like to see him rot in it.
But no matter what happens to Christopher; the trauma and despair experienced by Donna, Valerie, and the rest of their family will remain for ever.
Ryan
The Joseph Salmon Trust helped raise enough money to send Ryan’s family, including a recovered Donna, on a holiday. This may sound trivial in light of such tragedy. But it wasn’t. Time away from their home, from their situation gave them the space to come together as a family rebuild their lives, strengthen their bonds, and grieve. Maybe they also learned the essential lesson that, while your heart will never be light again, it’s OK to still find pleasure in life.
The family must have valued the Trusts support, because two years later they themselves raised over double what they had received in order help the charity to support others going through child bereavement.
The Joseph Salmon Trust may be a small charity. But it’s impact on the lives of people it helps is enormous. As you know, it was set up by my friends Neil and Racheal Salmon after the death of their three year old son Joseph, and there is no possible way I could be any more proud of them.
The Trust supports parents who have lost a child by providing financial assistance to those who need it most. This may be to help with funeral costs or to allow the self employed a break from work while they come to terms with their loss.
Grieving families have enough to deal with without worries about where they will find the money to say goodbye to their child or pay the next electricity bill. Nothing we can do can make their situation better, but we can do something to stop it getting worse.
In just under 10 months time I and the following wonderful people will be walking the entire 84 mile length of Hadrian’s Wall Footpath in just six days in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust:
- Dan, from All That Comes With It
- Oli Walker, who came on the original Dales Walk
- Cathrine, from Some Vague Utopia
- Richard, fiance of Cathrine
- David Graham, a veteran of both the Dales Walk and the Cumbria Way
- Craig Kelly, a veteran of both the Dales Walk and the Cumbria Way
- James Muscroft (Mushy), who came on the original Dales Walk
- Rich Brook, a veteran of both the Dales Walk and the Cumbria Way
- Clair, from Moon In The Gutter
- Michael Clarke, from Green Tea Ice Cream
- Jo, from Jo Beaufoix
- Nic, Jo’s friend
- Erin, from Fierce Beagle
- Noah, Erin’s husband
- Idaho Dad, from A Family Runs Through It
- Rajiv, Idaho Dad’s friend
- JJ Daddy-O, from JJ Daddy-O
- Archie Malcolm, my father-in-law
- Arjan, from Dutchnid
- Martin, from Xbox4NappyRash
- Josie, from Life in Biscuit
- David, Josie’s husband
- Rich Bassinder, a veteran of both the Dales Walk and the Cumbria Way
- Ian, from Single Parent Dad
- Emma, Ian’s sister
- Helen, a friend of my wife Kerry
- Tony, Helen’s husband
- ImPerceptible, from ImPerceptibility
- Steve, ImPerceptible’s husband
- Whit, from Honea Express
- Tricia, Whit’s wife
- NYC Watchdog, from A Pile of dog Bones
- Poppy, from Poppy Cedes
- Ed, from Zoe’s Dad
- Maura, Ed’s wife
In addition my brother Sam from Rabbit Confused with Raisins will be leading a splinter group of around 20 walkers in the opposite direction (meeting up with us in the middle), and Gary, from Jerry Chicken and a bunch of his friends will be tackling the route by bicycle.
Beds have been booked, routes have been planned, and deposits have been paid. We’re going to do this thing if it kills us. Which lets face it, it probably will.
We’re hoping to raise a lot of money, in fact I’ve set a rather optimistic secret target of about £20,000, which would roughly be an entire years worth of funding raising for the charity. And as the Trust has no paid employees and all administration costs are paid for by corporate donations, every single penny we raise will go directly to the people who need it most.
Twenty thousand pounds. That’s a high number. But we can do it, I know we can.
If you would like to sponsor us you can do so here. You can do it now if you like, in fact that would be great. But the primary purpose of this post isn’t fundraising (although trust me, you’ll get plenty of that stuff nearer the time). I just wanted to keep the Hadrian’s Walk in your consciousness as I haven’t mentioned it for a while.
You can keep up to date on the progress of the training, planning, and organization for the walk on our very own Hadrian’s Walk Blog. Please add us to your feedreader if you haven’t already done so.
Thanks for reading.
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All the information in this post is available in the public domain from newspaper articles. The Joseph Salmon Trust obviously keeps all information about families it helps strictly confidential.
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on Sep 12th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Dad who writes ´s last blog ..Employee relations
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:20 am
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on Sep 12th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:20 am
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 1:04 am
I have begun my training- I’m aiming to swim around three miles a week to help improve my fitness, build a little more muscle and lose weight. With luck, I should be about a stone and a half lighter than on the Dales Walk. You’re about five stone down now right?
I’m looking forward to this walk, and I’m sure the wall will provide rich pickings for many, many Interesting facts.
I’m also confident that my friends, family and colleagues will be keen to contribute to the Trust, and though your secret target is ambitious, it’s certainly achievable, especially considering the considerable difference it will make.
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:22 am
The (not so) secret target is ambitious, but I think achievable. Nine of us raised 6000 last year, and there will be a total of between 50 -60 in the various teams this year (assuming no one drops out)
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 1:08 am
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:22 am
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Jeff´s last blog ..Allow me to paint you a sandwich
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:23 am
We’ve gone multinational baby.
I’ll pencil you in for 2012
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 11:52 am
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Dan Reply:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
One recurring theme with the JST seems to be how the people that the trust helps then go on to raise far more money for the trust than they benefited from, for me that is proof of a gratitude and a need for the service, nothing more to say.
As for the bike ride – I’ve got a nice little team together now, one of them has even bought a new and very expensive bike for the event, I’m so looking forward to it !
Gary´s last blog ..Video Saturday – Spike Milligan
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
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on Sep 13th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
[...] mate Dan posted this. And rather than just redirecting you there I wanted to post it here, because I really really want you to read it. I hope that’s [...]
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
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on Sep 16th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Ryan was only a little older than Joseph was when he died. Our ‘comfort’ is that Joseph died in his sleep, knowing he was loved, and without fear. Sadly the Hawkins family do not even have that comfort.
People think that Neil and I are amazing and, who knows, maybe we are (we don’t feel amazing though!). We in turn look at people like Val, Donna and all those who miss Ryan and think well, what do we think? We admire them.
Our experiences in this life shape us – for better or for worse – hopefully even with the vilest tragedy, something positive can be taken from it.
Ryan did not deserve to die. He did not deserve a violent death at the hands of his father. His mother did not do anything to deserve a future of images and memories that must be nearly unbearable to deal with.
Val, Donna and others have managed to survive the months and years since losing Ryan. Not only that, but they have raised a heck of a lot of money for us.
For this, and in Ryan’s memory, we are grateful.
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on Sep 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
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on Sep 17th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
But best of luck to all of you on your trek, and especially to you in bringing it all together. You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.
Holmes´s last blog ..Aim for the head
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on Oct 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Unfortunately I live way the heck over here in the States and can’t participate in the walk with you guys. I sincerely wish I could. I will definitely be thinking of you guys and will do my best to make a donation shortly.
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Dan Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Any help you can give the trust goes towards reinforcing that good. And that can never be a bad thing.
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