Hi All, excuse the following long read, I hope you find it worthwhile.... I always said I wanted to do something to remember Darren by and here it is... Who is Darren you ask? He was my best friend, icon, mucka, voice of reason and stepfather. At 51 he was a fit, hard working, honest champion of a man, He met my mum 6 years ago and since that day his sole aim was to make her and everyone around him happy, my mum did more in six years than during the rest of her life previously. They were getting married soon and planned to save for a new house, so for him to be taken like this is even harder to swallow, man I cry daily thinking about the void thats there now. Trying to paint a picture, imagine a man that you only refer to as 'tits' or an equally childish insult, you walk in the door and he's dancing in the kitchen to 'everyday I'm Shufflin' in his boxers after a solid days graft whilst my mum shouts at him for acting like a child. That was normality. A man that when I needed £10 drove 30 miles to give it me, a man that took my mum away all over the world spending every penny he earned and in his worst ever fit of anger could only muster a 'Oh Bugger'. He'd just bought a Ducati 996 with my mum that he saved for three years for, tragically he only got to ride it about three times and the fact he left no will has meant the bikes now gone to estranged next of kin, who didn't bother with him for 8 years, told him he wasn't a worthy father and cancelled my mums car 20 minutes before his funeral... All because he'd finally found happiness and people that loved him. He inspiried me and looked out for everyone... Even on the day he died, he helped me fix my meg up for its MOT, sat singing along to Radio 2 and stood laughing in the rain with me whilst I called him Gary Glitter due to his new varifocal glasses and tight jeans he happened to have on. He then went for a 'wellman' checkup at the doctors before football, we got the results back the other week, they were all perfect. Everything was fun and I honestly cant think of sad day bar August 12th, the day we lost him. Although he was taken from us, he left us able to do good, and better ourselves. I know in the past the meg community has been fantastic when the time comes and now I ask you to give again to help The British Heart Foundation continue their none stop hard work. I have teamed up with my good friend Josh Cook, as most/all of you know, he races in the Clio Cup Series. We're going to 'Join the Fight'. Seeing how much the loss has affected me and my family and with heart issues affecting his family in recent years, Josh has gracefully agreed to help fundraise for The British Heart Foundation with me. At the final Touring Car round at Brands Hatch in just under two weeks, Josh has relinquished all Sponsors logos on his racecar for the weekend and will race with just sponsorship from the Heart Foundation whilst the Heart foundation fundraise during the weekend at the circuit, wait till you see the race car! I've spend weeks organising it through hours of red tape but it'll be special. During the weekend at Brands Hatch we hope to make as money as we can, we will have a fundraising team there, all be kitted out in Heart Foundation clothes and Josh will be dying his hai... no wait But seriously, You can help too. I've set up a text number that you can donate with, its SO easy... Just text "JOCO66" then the amount (with a £ before it) to 70070. Its literally that easy, Even if a few on here gave a quid we'd make hundreds. (You can also donate at www.justgiving.com/cook66 Although it's basic on there as our individual text hasn't been added in yet so excuse how rough it looks) I want to make a difference and help others, plain and simple. We've joined the fight. I hope you can too. When feeling sad about things in life, often my career, Darren used to say to me "I believe in you Naithan, Ive got a good feeling about you, something good is around the corner" God knows if it is, I can only think positive now though remembering his constant support when even my mother and girlfriend seemed to lose faith. It inspires you when someone believes in you. Anyhoo, They'll be alot more info in the forthcoming days, Any info needed don't hesitate to contact me and hopefully you can see it's something so close to my heart. Thankyou x
Such sad news and I'm sorry for your loss, never easy losing a loved one, alas lost my old man far too early. Good luck for the day and for the fundraising as it's a great charity and I'm sure Darren would be proud!
Sorry to hear that Naith, donation sent. I will probably be going to Brands, only live around the corner.
Naith - my dad had a heart attack in January and after 4 hrs in A&E he was sent away from the hospital with indigestion. During the 20 minute drive home he had 10 missed calls from the hospital asking him to come back as they wanted him to stay in for the evening. Obviously they released him before the test results were back from the lab and he needed some work doing and medication. If I had lost him my life would have changed and been turned upside down, thankfully things are ok. One of my best mates Dad had a heart attack at Christmas and flatlined but is back with the living. Seeing as all this has happened and that my grandad died from a heart attack I will be donating and spreading the word amongst family and friends. Sorry for your loss and good luck with everything, you have truly stepped up to the plate and going the extra mile for a worthwhile cause.
I've donated naith, we've also had a rough time of it over the last 5 weeks with my own dad, all the best to the family mate. Steve
jesus, I got nervous reading that, glad he's ok. feel free to spread the word of course its a massive help! And like steve said guys we've hit over £500 in less than 24hours. I had no idea we'd even make more than 50 quid. So touched, the main man would be too. Thankyou, lets crack on and see how far we can get!
Started getting the vinyls on the car yesterday, alot more to go on but the cars going to look great this weekend when we are done! Josh cook BHF-1 by NaithanAriane, on Flickr Josh cook BHF-3 by NaithanAriane, on Flickr Josh cook BHF-2 by NaithanAriane, on Flickr Keep donating guys, we are about to break £1000 with online, text, collection boxes and cheques
Hey All, for anyone interested we are £841 on justgiving.com/cook66 plus £60 in cheques from the funeral and about £30 quid raised by my girlfriend from each client she's done and taken a quid of each treatment. We are just shy of £1000 and I know by tomorrow when I'm sat in the hotel near Brands Hatch we'll have cracked it. Cant wait. Cars gonna look fab too!
Hi All, sorry I never posted. Got so much going on I didn't have the chance. The weekend couldn't have gone better. We had the head of the South west BHF there with her family all weekend and on the sunday we invited (Thankyou to Renault Sport UK) a family who lost their father to heart failure during the 'Great North Run' a few years back. They really enjoyed the event too. As for the racing, Josh had a 5 place penalty for the first race which saw him starting 9th, he did what he does and ended up 5th... Sunday was a different matter though, when I say it rained, I mean it rained to a level they nearly cancelled the sundays racing... Josh started 5th, Up to third after Paddock Hill and after Colburn and Files went wide at Graham Hill then into first. 3 safety cars, alot of crashing and bumping later and its P1! So for him to finish first in the last Renault Clio cup round ever in the Clio 3 RS is something special, the car looked fantastic (I spent ages doing it lol!) and it was mentioned all over ITV in Joshs' interviews. RESULT!!! Its hard fundraising I gotta be honest, I could have pushed it on more forums and asked more people but its not my style so to reach the total below is great (Including cheques from the funeral, my GFs contribution from work and bits from the weekend, Including Luke. & Paul Bancroft who gave over £100 each after saying they would if Josh won haha!!) Total is £1420. Its by no means closed but until we look at doing something again I doubt it'll rise much more. I want to thank each and every person that donated. For such a proper cause its unreal in ten days we got over £1000 and the rest followed so yeh , Jo from the Heart Foundation was telling me about where the money will go and its getting put towards work by a chap whose literally done 7/8 stem cell ops on regrowing parts of the heart that fail. it was mind-blowing. I know Darren would be so chuffed. Proud as punch. Pics are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.183589398493717.1073741837.138808509638473&type=1 www.justgiving.com/cook66
