Young Duke with his mother Mary….
In Loving Memory of Mary
4 Jan 2013 at 20:47
A couple of days ago I was emailed by a friend who wanted to draw my attention to an appeal launched by 25 year old Duke Safo. He wants to raise £5,000 in order to be able to finance, er, his mother’s funeral. His Mum died in November at the very young age of 48. He is auctioning his in a very unique way in order to raise the funds. He’s set up a website. He writes…
For those who may not already know, my mother Mary Safo, sadly and unexpectedly passed away on 9th November 2012 aged only 48. For 25 years I have been blessed with a wonderful mother whose kindness resonated through every fibre of her being. My mum had an unrelenting happiness which was infectious, a smile which filled your heart with warmth, and a heart so pure she didn’t know how to not be genuine. Although I’m devastated not to have my mum here with me anymore, I’m happy she is in a better place where she deserves to be. I owe my mum everything, she was a wonderful example of the type of person I still aspire to be like, which is why I want to give her a respectable goodbye.
Despite my family and I pulling together all our resources, due to the unexpected nature of her passing, it has been difficult to acquire all the necessary funds for her funeral. All I want to do is give my Mum the best farewell that I can. Unfortunately I am struggling to contribute as I am in the middle of my post grad studies. I need to raise £5000….This has led me to take the decision to raffle my car! My aim is not to make any money personally but to contribute as much as I possibly can to my Mum’s service. I have been pondering over the decision to be so public with my mums death as it is such a personal and sad circumstance however after some careful thought I came to the conclusion that I not only wanted to raise money for my Mum’s funeral but to let people know about this wonderful woman that I was blessed to have as a mother. Should by any miracle there be any resdiual funds at the end of the raffle I will donate this to MIND, one of the charities, supporting an illness which affected my mum.
The reason for the delay for my mums funeral is because my mum will be repatriated to Ghana, and this requires a lot of time to prepare. A funeral service will be held in London mid Jan , then subsequently a few days later her body will be flown to Ghana where my mum will finally be laid to rest next to her dad. The time I am having to wait to gain closure has been extremely difficult to say the least, but what I am trying to do for my mum has kept me going for her.
****So far Duke has raised £736 and has six more days to get to £5,000. I made a donation earlier, partly because I was moved by his story and also because I rather admire his initiative. If you’d like to do the same click here and then tweet or share the page on Facebook. Let’s hope he gets to his target.
Source: http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2013/01/04/in-loving-memory-of-mary
Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: I love Ian Dale and listen to him regularly on LBC radio station, and thank him for letting the likes of me hear about Duke Safo’s plight. As a single mother of a beautiful young boy, this story has touched me sooo deeply –on so many levels!!! God Bless Duke and his family –and give them peace. To make a donation, kindly visit: http://inlovingmemoryofmary.webs.com/
You can also follow Duke's journey via: https://twitter.com/DukeofYou
Learn more about Duke's story via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jgcMCVaMDk
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