A fitting tribute to brave Chris (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A fitting tribute to brave Chris

8:23am Tuesday 21st April 2009

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As her son’s willow casket was lowered to its final resting place, Sue Gibson noticed a flurry of snow gently flutter down into the rose petal-strewn grave, and the cry of a curlew.

It was a special moment she will never forget, like the day she gave birth to her eldest son, Chris, on February 2 – Candlemas Day symbolised by snowdrops.

Last September, Sue, her husband Richard and their youngest son David planted snowdrops around Chris’s grave. When they returned to place a wreath there last December, they noticed one single snowdrop was in flower in the centre of the plot where he lays.

No parent expects to bury their child, and the devastating loss of Sue’s son at the age of just 29 was evident when we spoke, a week after the first anniversary of his death.

Chris, of Bradford, was diagnosed with a rare glioma brain tumour in May, 2006. His death, on March 31 last year, was on the anniversary of the party Sue had held for her 60th birthday.

Instead of presents, she’d asked for donations to the brain tumour charity Andrea’s Gift.

Sue recalls that Chris began having seizures. The location of the tumour on his frontal lobe, which affects personality and thinking, meant it was difficult to operate to identify whether it was malignant or benign.

“People can have them for 20 years. They can fade away or become malignant,” says Sue.

The family hoped the tumour would fade away, but Chris suffered more seizures. Further scans revealed the tumour had changed. Chris was given treatment to reduce the swelling and a biopsy was taken, which confirmed it was malignant and of the highest grade.

Radiotherapy left him exhausted, but Chris never gave up hope. “He was absolutely shattered by the end of the treatment, but he never said any words of self pity. He just stayed positive,” recalls Sue.

Chris loved living life to the full. He left Luton University with a Masters degree in IT, hoping to seek a career in computing. He loved music, cricket and travelling. He visited friends in Japan, Venice and London after being diagnosed with his brain tumour, but his condition worsened when the tumour spread down his spine affecting his bone marrow.

“It is just an awful illness and the prognosis for some is no better for brain tumours than it was 40 years ago,” says Sue.

Sue’s voice falters when she recalls how Chris’s friends and his cousins from Vancouver made it to his bedside to say their final goodbyes. “All the people who meant something to him had seen him,” says Sue.

A year after his death, Sue is still struggling to accept that her beloved son isn’t around. “Christmas was hard, my birthday, the anniversary of his death. You steel yourself to manage those days, but it’s the ordinary days when you think ‘I’d love to tell him that’. It pierces you to the heart,” says Sue.

Chris’s death has had a lasting impact on his friends too. His best friend, Amy Atkinson, is used to taking to the stage. A fiddler and singer with folk band, Midnight Special, she is preparing for the most poignant gig of her musical career – the concert she has organised in Chris’ memory.

Amy and her partner, Roger Davies, who is known as the ‘Voice of Calderdale’, are collaborating on the charity concert to raise funds for the brain tumour charity, Andrea’s Gift.

Based in Bradford, Andrea’s Gift was set up in memory of Andrea Key, a mother-of-two from Bradford who was 42 when she died of an aggressive brain tumour in May, 2002.

In the six years since it was established, Andrea’s Gift has raised £694,000 towards brain tumour research. It is believed to be the only charity in Yorkshire specifically raising funds for this type of research.

Amy hopes the charity concert will also recognise the help and support the charity gave to Chris and his family after he was diagnosed.

Amy had known Chris from being a young girl. The pair met through their mums who belong to the same Morris dancing team.

“We became really close friends when I was about 15,” says Amy.

The pair had a mutual love of music. Amy comes from a musical family; her father is a professional entertainer and she helps him in his business. She also plays the fiddle. Chris loved music too, and he played the clarinet.

Amy took time to recover after Chris’s death. “My life seemed to collapse around me. Roger pulled me out of it,” she says.

Conscious that Chris had been eager to raise awareness about Andrea’s Gift, Amy came up with the idea for a concert to raise money for the charity.

The anniversary of Chris’s death seemed the appropriate time to organise an event in his memory so Amy and Roger began planning.

“It’s a year since he died and it seems right to do it now,” says Amy.

Sue recalls Amy playing the violin at Chris’s funeral. “It came from the heart,” she says. “Amy is a wonderful young woman with a lot of talent.

“She is supporting Chris in a remarkable and marvellous way. I feel it has hit his friends very hard to lose one of their peers, and it is a marvellous tribute to do the concert in his memory and for Andrea’s Gift.”

The concert, featuring Roger and Amy and her band, Amy Atkinson And The Midnight Special, takes place at Birdsedge Village Hall, Penistone Road, Birdsedge on Saturday, May 2.

Tickets are available on (01422) 350980. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to Andrea’s Gift.

• For more information about Andrea’s Gift call (01943) 870770 or 07918 882816, e-mail andreasgift@btconnect.com or visit andreasgift.org.uk

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