The Loughrey family would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of our family, friends, neighbours and the wider community for the love, support and sympathy cards we have received over the last 3 weeks.

During this difficult time, our hearts and minds were lighten by the sheer volume of offers of help; from making sandwiches & drinks, to helping set up the house to accommodate the wake.

We would also like to extend a special acknowledgement to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust (KBRT) that brought Chris home. We will never be able to truly articulate the gratitude we have for the work that the KBRT have done for us – their expertise, time, dedication, love and compassion they have given to total strangers, who have gone through the same sorrow, is amazing. Through their work we’ve now been able to lay our brother to rest with his father and sister.

To pay it forward, we created a GoFundMe page under the Kevin Bell Charity section to continue to replenish the pot for other families. Thanks to our family, friends and the community we’ve raised over £10k. We will forever be indebted to the trust for the rest of lives and will continue to contribute to such an amazing charity.

Finally, a thank you to the McCusker Brothers and Father Gates. Enda & Tom provided nothing but support, care, dedication, advice and updates over the last few weeks, which all of the family truly appreciated. Father Gates was a true comfort to the family and gave Chris a beautiful Requiem Mass which provided the congregation with a lovely reflection of Chris’ character, with Braid Campbell providing heartfelt music & Father Juan overseeing the burial.

It’s impossible to thank everyone, but we hope this acknowledgement will be accepted by all. Chris’ Months Mind will be held on Sunday 18th February at 9am in Church of St. Patrick Castledawson & in Sydney local time.