Charity Fundraising Day in memory of Ben Jay
I am writing to notify you that Friday 11th February will be a special day in school where we will be fundraising for a very special reason. We will be raising money in aid of our ex-student Ben Jay, who has recently passed away with a rare form of cancer. As well as being a non-uniform day for all students we will be holding a sweet sale and a charity football match. At the school gates, students will be asked for a suggested donation of £1 and may also wish to bring in money to participate in the other fundraising activities taking place throughout the day.
Many students will know and remember Ben who left our school last year (July 2020). He was an active member of the school community who loved both playing and watching football. Ben is a talented goalkeeper and represented the school on numerous occasions. Ben enjoyed school and looked forward to pursuing his passion for sport in the future, he had just been accepted as part of the Cray Valley Academy when he left Welling School at 16 years old.
Sadly, Ben had been feeling unwell for around 18 months with a range of different symptoms. Due to COVID and doctors unable to recognise and diagnose all the symptoms, the severity of Ben’s illness was unknown until the 2nd July 2021.
On the 6th July 2021 Ben was told he had a tumour on his liver and for various reasons, he is unable to have a liver transplant. The form of cancer that Ben has been diagnosed with is called Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This is a really rare cancer that only affects two young people a year.
We plan to donate all the proceeds from the day to Ben and his family for the additional costs they are incurring and to help them to create some special memories that can be treasured forever. As Ben is an avid football fan we have been in talks with Charlton Athletic about what opportunities they can help us with.
Students are expected to maintain high standards of behaviour in lessons and during break and lunchtime and must wear suitable, practical, appropriate clothing for school. Offensive slogans or images on clothing will not be permitted. All school rules including those regarding mobile phones and headphones/airpods remain unchanged.
We hope that this will be an enjoyable event for the whole school community and a positive end to the half term. Most importantly, we hope to help out an amazing young man and his family during what is an incredibly difficult time for them.
If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to contact me directly.
Yours faithfully
Mr J Brown
Head of PE