A memorial bench for Alex

Aim

My grandson Alex died age 13, his last wish was for a memorial bench in his favourite place Newmillerdam.

This is really difficult to write as no person should be in this position

Alex was 13 when he died, it was totally out of the blue none of the family had a clue as to how Alex really felt.

Alex was born Jessica Susan he was a happy baby always a bit shy and sensitive, he loved to be around his family and friends, he went to nursery and then  junior and infant school, he was always eager to go and happy to be  there, he exceeded everyone expectations.

Jessica went up to senior school during the covid period we know that this caused Jess anxiety, in year 8 Jess came to us and told us he was transgender and wanted to be called Alex

Alex was welcomed into our family, we felt privileged that Alex wanted to share this part of his life with us.

Year 8 was difficult for Alex ,we knew there was some issues with school and that Alex was struggling with anxiety and he was self harming, family and friends were supporting Alex at the time.

On that fateful morning Alex got up and went to school as normal, at about 10am his mum and I were contacted by the police, to say there had been an incident, we were taken to the hospital to find Alex on life support about to be transferred to Sheffield  children's hospital

We spent 4 days at the hospital as a family, Alex underwent further surgery on his brain to try and give him a chance but on the last day we had to make the decision to let Alex go.

After Alex had died through his books ,poems and doodling's we found out how he really  felt, he had left us instructions on what he wanted us to do, we have carried all these instructions  out, except the last one, which was to have a memorial  bench at Newmillerdam his favourite place.

After 12 months of negotiating with the council we have been given permission to go ahead, so now we need to raise £825 to pay for the bench and for it fitting.

If we raise more than this we would like it to go to the children's hospital who were amazing and Taketen a charity that has helped us through the last 12months we would like to say a BIG thankyou to both.

I you feel as though you can help us please donate to our cause 

As a family we would like to say thank you for taking the time to read this Crowdfunder. 

This project successfully funded on 7th September 2023