The beautiful boy who’s life we were all lucky enough to share, made people smile for 15 & a half years; & he’s still making us smile & inspiring us

In a week when the summer holidays have finished, schools have gone back and when the under 16 football season is about to start, there’s been a lot of news about Huw’s Trust.  News of heart warming acts along with generous and unexpected donations.  A week when so many of us have missed Huw so much, has also seen some positives.  Life can be like a weird mirror – the worst things can happen but some of the kindest things can be reflected back.

Last Saturday a relative of Huw’s (Charlotte Hayes) got married.  On her wedding list, she put ‘£10’ donations to Huw’s trust as an item and this resulted in 22 donations being bought – mostly from people who hadn’t met Huw!  Thank you to Charlotte and Marcus and all those who bought one of these wonderful wedding gifts.

On Tuesday Russ Briggs on behalf of Barclays Bank donated a signed Yorkshire County Cricket Club bat for auction or raffle.  We are grateful to Russ, the cricket club and the bank 🙂

And we had a Team Huw get together on Tuesday and there will be things happening to remember Huw and raise money for his Trust through the winter and again next year.  We’ll put a list on here soon.

On Wednesday, 3 of Huw’s friends (Ella, Hayley and Heather P) made the lovely suggestion that Huw’s friends and family could set of (helium) balloons with messages from Sands on 25th November.  Some people will have private thoughts and want private times on Huw’s birthday, but some of us will also want to do something together.  This feeling of togetherness from Huw’s family and friends has helped a lot of people over the last 6 months and we welcome this touching suggestion from Huw’s lovely friends who are now finding more out about how they can do this.  It’s a beautiful idea and we’ll put more information about it on here nearer the time.

On Thursday we were provided with donations from Mark Sayers and customers/staff at Huddersfield Bearings.  Mark had heard about Huw and was involved in the 5 a side tournament in June and was moved by the stories of Huw – so he set up a collection at work for a great cause to help brain injured people.  The beautiful boy who’s life we were all lucky enough to share, made people smile for 15 and a half years – and he’s still making us smile and inspiring people.

The referee from Hepworth Under 16’s match on Thursday (Richard Senior) donated his match fees to Huw’s trust.  Thank you Richard.

Huw’s bench and flower tubs at Sands are looking lovely as Autumn approaches; we’ll be planting bulbs in and around them soon, so that when the Autumn flowers die back, they’ll be replaced by lovely colours in the spring.  And we know that Huw’s friends look out for his area at Sands, even detering anyone who doesn’t understand what a precious place it is from leaving any rubbish.  And it’s lovely to speak to any of them who are at Sands on visits to Huw’s bench – they are such an open and welcoming group.

This week the framed Huw Hepworth United number 2 shirt was put up in the sports hall corridor at school – it is now adorning the wall in pride of place at the top of the stairs in a place where Huw had some of his happiest times.  Thank you to the school for enabling this.

This line seems very relevant for every person who has felt the sharpness of what happened to Huw, but done something positive in response  “It’s what we do in the worst of times that tells the world who we really are.”

There’s a Huw Thatcher Trust Facebook page; ask to be a member of the Group here if you want to.