Altrincham Rotarian Ken Garrity visited South Shields at the end of August, to present two cheques from the Rotary 1285 Manchester Arena Fund to the families of Chloe Rutherford and Liam Curry, who were both sadly killed in the Manchester bombing.

Ken has sent this photo of the cheque presentation, taken outside Westoe Travel, where Chloe worked. He is handing over two chqs for £1000 each from Rotary District 1285 Manchester Bomb Appeal, to Graeme Brett owner of Westoe Travel, and one of the Trustees of the TogetherForever Trust set up by the two families. He took a few days off and we had a handover of monies collected for the two families. There are no photos of the families as requested.

A giant raffle #TheBigDraw was held with 55 travel related gifts on offer. There was a function held locally in South Shields; both families were invited. Over 60 people attended. They had a local celebrity Chris Ramsey , comedian from TV, who drew out winning raffle tickets.

Ken started a Just Giving fund through the travel trade when he learned that Chloe and her boyfriend had been killed as he must have spoken to her getting through to Graeme, a friend in the travel trade. That raised over £3000.00, which he handed over. Ken then was asked back on stage and did a presentation for the £2000 from Rotary District 1285 which went down really well.

The event was really good (under the circumstances) and altogether a giant chq for £30,107.00 , a huge amount ,was handed over on the day from all the proceeds. Everyone was in tears.

Ken was also made an Honorary Geordie. He commented "WEY AYE MAN!! Also a Geordie passport with veesa!!". For those on Facebook, there is a video of this in Graeme Brett's Facebook.

For more info, here is a recent Manchester Evening News Article about the Chloe & Liam Together Forever Trust, which aims to help aspiring performers and sports men and women achieve their dreams.