Christopher’s Story
Christopher was born in Kings College Hospital south London on the 4th June 1982
. The first thing we noticed was his piercing beautiful blue eyes. Chris was the third of our children. He had a very placid nature and was a very good baby.
A year later his brother Phil was born and you couldn’t separate them. Chris was definitely the leader of the two of them, they went to the same schools throughout their growing years.
Chris would make friends very easily. At sixteen he was the best man at his brothers Louis wedding in Scotland (The photo above is Chris as the best man) He thought he was the bee’s knees for the day.
At the reception after the wedding Chris was welcoming everyone into the bar and offering them a drink – it was a free bar.
As the evening went on, Chris was still getting drinks for everyone. Ray noticed this and thought he would play a joke on him. He went to the bar staff and asked if they could make out a bar bill for four hundred pounds;
he did inform them he was playing a joke on Chris and they were only too happy to join in the fun.
Ray went over to Chris while he was getting some more drinks and asked him what was he doing? To which he answered “my job as the best man-making sure everyone had a drink”
Ray said “Who is paying for the drinks?” He replied “it’s a free bar.” Ray said no that was for the first drink only” and handed him the bar bill.
Then, to make matters worse, the bar manager who was in on the joke came over demanding payment. Christopher’s face just hit the floor in shock; he turned to the manager and asked if he would take a cheque.
Ray looked at him and said” you don’t have any money in the bank and I spent all my money getting here”.
Then the father-in-law, who was also in on the joke came over and said “you are showing my family up, what are you going to do about this.”
We could see Chris was on the verge of a heart attack. We all started laughing. Then the penny dropped and he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but he took the joke like a sport. The girls behind the bar said “they would dance with him for being a great sport.
Chris was a fun- loving young man and you could bet something would happen around him. Like the day we all went to Greenwich Park with our daughter and our Grandaughter Rena who was around two at the time.
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Ray and Chris decided to go on the boating lake, and Vi shouted “can you turn around as Rena can’t see you.”
So without thinking, Chris said “lets change seats and face the other way”
And then got out of his seat in the rowing boat, and it capsize. Ray and Chris were standing in the lake up to their waist in dirty pond water.
You had to be there it was so funny, they waded out of the water and laid on the grass in the sun to dry off. Everyone was laughing – that’s how funny it was.
We got the bus home and you could still smell the stink from the pond on their clothes.
You could see people on the bus pulling faces because of the smell.
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A few years later, Chris was working in a pizza shop with his sister and brother -in-law in south Croydon and opperosite was a tattoo shop; he asked his sister if she would go with him?
Well the tattoo artist just put the needle on his arm and he just went limp and felt fainth his sister had to take him out for air and walked him up and down the high street till he felt better. He recovered and was able to get the tattoo on his arm.
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Chris drove a pizza delivery motorbike and broke the record for delivering the most pizzas in his fourteen-hour shift. He won a cheap watch.
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Another time Chris entered a radio show phone in contest and won a long weekend in Paris and two hundred pounds spending money.
He rang Ray and Vi and said “I want you both to have the holiday because you both deserve a break” that is the kind -hearted person he was (but he did keep the spending money)
That is just a few stories about our Chris.
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He was always mindful of others
That’s why we know he would love all that has been achieved in his name over the past years
He would love our logo
CHANGING LIVES MAKING A DIFFERENCE