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From the
https://theisleofthanetnews.com By Kathy Bailes, 27 September 2018.
Sunken Ship playground opened at Pegwell pub in memory of little Alfie Gough.
Picture: www.matthewwalkerphotography.com
The family of Ramsgate lad Alfie Gough, who lost his battle against
cancer at the age of two, have officially opened a playground at the
Sir Stanley Gray pub in Pegwell in his memory.
Alfie lost his life to neuroblastoma on July 29, 2010.
Since he died his parents Sarah and Dean, have worked continuously
to raise funds to support other children going through complementary
therapy in a special room at Great Ormond Street Hospital. They also
campaign to raise awareness of the disease.
Through their charity, The Alfie Gough Trust, the couple and their
family and friends support children with cancer and their families
and annually arrange the Alfie Gough Teddy Bear’s picnic and
memorial run in King George VI Park on July 29 – the day Alfie lost
his cancer battle.
Now they have marked the opening of a £60,000 sunken ship-themed
playground – the only one of its kind in the UK – which has been
designed and manufactured by outdoor play experts, Creative Play.
Frank Thorley, who owns the pub along with a number of other sites,
played his part in helping to raise money for Sarah and Dean, when
they were in the process of trying to fund treatment in America
prior to their son’s death.
He has continued his support for the couple, now living in
Vancouver, Canada, since they launched The Alfie Gough Trust which
helps children fighting cancer.
Frank says Alfie’s battle touched the hearts of the community and he
was delighted that family members could come to the pub and give the
new play area their seal of approval. To mark the occasion he
pledged a further £200 to their cause.
Sarah, 40, and Dean, who are also parents to Harry, six, and Louis,
four, visited the new play area during a recent visit home and
thanked Frank for all his support over the years.
Sarah said: “My sister in law Tracey Todd has worked for Thorley
Taverns for many years.
“We have used the pub as a family and held Alfie’s wake there. We
spent time at the new play area with family and friends whilst we
were back in the UK recently. It’s fantastic. The children
absolutely loved it.
“Thorley Taverns have supported us for the past eight years since we
started fundraising. We have been very lucky to have had, and
continue to have, such great support from Thorley Taverns.
“The charity loves working and being involved with our local
community as this was where it all started when everyone stopped to
help our beautiful Alfie.”
Picture: www.matthewwalkerphotography.com
Despite months of gruelling treatment, Sarah says Alfie passed away
peacefully without pain, infections or suffering due to
complementary treatments and support from a nutritional therapist.
The Alfie Gough Trust raises funds so other families can have access
to the same services.
Sarah said: “Going through something like this changes you and the
day we lost Alfie we felt we couldn’t go through this for nothing,
we had to make something positive out of what happened.
“So we created The Alfie Gough Trust for three reasons. Firstly, we
wanted Alfie to have a legacy, secondly we wanted to make a
difference for children fighting cancer and our third reason was to
give something back to our amazing community for all the support
they gave our little boy.
“We learned a lot about complementary therapy during Alfie’s
treatment and we felt this was a good way to help the children.
“We’ve helped set up a massage therapy room at Great Ormond Street
Hospital which has helped so many children on a ward where Alfie
spent most of his little life.
“It made us still feel close to Alfie and seeing the wonderful
result this was having on so many children makes this something the
charity is delighted to be part of.”
Mr Thorley said: “It’s fantastic to have Alfie’s family here. Since
the Trust was set up we’ve been big supporters of it, holding
fundraising evenings across our sites.
“It’s a fantastic cause. When you hear about kids who are struck
down like that it’s horrific so we will do anything we can to
highlight what they do.”
He added: “We selected Creative Play from a number of people and
we’ve been very satisfied with what they’ve done.
“They’ve made a great job of the play area and I’m very happy. We’ve
had the site for over 20 years and we’ve been gradually developing
and extending it.
“We built an extension on a couple of years ago with a bar and
restaurant and function room.
“The next thing was to look at building a play area which we got
finished this year.
“We were looking at a pirate ship theme as we’ve had something
similar on one of our other sites. That’s been a big attraction so
we really wanted to do it here.
“We’ve done it from scratch. We’ve not had one here before but there
was an area we could build it so it made sense.
“It’s right on the sea level and we’re really happy with it. We’ve
also got beach huts to complement it.
“It’s lovely being by the sea but you’re restricted on the water’s
edge. You’ve only got customers coming in from 180 degrees rather
than 360 so it’s important you have things to attract people in.”
Rob Williams, area manager at Chester-based Creative Play, said the
project was his most challenging to date but also the one that has
given him the greatest satisfaction.
He said: “It was a very difficult project. The area of the build is
at the bottom of the cliff so there was no road access.
“We worked with Frank who organised cranes to lift everything down
to the site.
“It was quite a challenge but once we overcame that the build was
completed within three and a half weeks.” |
