Five years later

Sunday 25 September 2011 would have been Tom’s 27th birthday. To mark the occasion, a special celebration was held at the Laburnum Boat Club in Hackney. The event also celebrated the life of Tom’s half-brother, Martin Sinclair, who died aged 27 years in September 1997, and was attended by many of their friends and families. Dolores, Tom’s mother, read her poem for Martin and Tom, “Two Lives”:

Two lives shining bright
Two lives of youth and might
Two lives touched by sound
Two lives that astound
Two lives bold and free
Two lives for us to see
Two lives that brought us smile
Two lives we thought were wild
Two lives we now keep
Two lives that won’t weep
Two lives we enshrined
Two lives today combine
Two lives – same fate
Two lives we celebrate

Martin’s mother also spoke, and she was followed by Galit Ferguson, his childhood friend, who read her poem “Martin”. In 2010, the Sinclair Trust had donated its narrowboat to the Laburnum Boat Club to provide access to London’s waterways for local people and Peter, Martin’s father, had the special privilege of being able to name it “Martin Sinclair” in memory of his son.

The previous day, Tom’s mother was interviewed by two local radio stations about the work of the Flavasum Trust, and in the evening, before meeting in memory of Tom, his schoolfriends visited a drop-in centre for young people in Royston where they saw the equipment the Trust had funded from donations it had received locally. A grant of approximately £1500 has helped the centre update its Xboxes and flat screens.

Although the event on Sunday was social, the Trust received donations of £415.66 on the day, a cheque for £155 from a company that shares a percentage of its profits amongst several charities, and a further £257.05 soon after, bringing the total it received to £827.71.