We don’t want any other family to go through our agony...
DAD OF STUDENT IN CANAL TRAGEDY TELLS OF FIRST CHRISTMAS WITHOUT HIS SON
IT’S been a harrowing year for the family of Charlie Pope, the young student who drowned in the Rochdale canal after a night out.
University of Manchester student Charlie, 19, was found dead in the city’s Rochdale Canal on March 2.
His dad, Nick Pope, has spent the 10 months since his son’s death campaigning for improved safety measures along the canals, with almost 100,000 people backing his call for barriers in an online petition.
Nick’s combined effort with water safety campaigner Alona Ainsworth has resulted in action, with the Manchester Water Safety Partnership saying it will implement 11 recommendations from a review carried out in the wake of Charlie’s death.
Now, Nick, his wife Andria, his son Joe and daughter Daisy, face their first Christmas without Charlie at their home in Northumberland.
Nick, 53, says their lives will never be the same again. Their task now is to remember Charlie and find a ‘new normal.’ Speaking of their loss, Nick said: “It just turns your whole world upside down. It’s not something you ever get over really. The best way someone described it to me was finding a new normal because the old life is gone.
“Obviously we are not particularly looking forward to Christmas. What we’re going to do on Christmas Day is go and see Charlie, and try to keep him in the day as much as we can.
“We don’t want to pretend that he’s not around, we just want him to be part of us. It will be tricky really.
“He was a brilliant, a lovely kid. He was very inclusive and lit up a room. Mad as a hatter too, just a lovely kid really. He thoroughly loved Manchester and was enjoying his experience at Manchester uni.”
Nick hopes all of the recommendations made in a review of water safety in Greater Manchester will be implemented.
He believes the measures put forward, including permanent barriers around Lock 89 where Charlie died, could save lives in the future.
Nick, who will serve as a special advisor to the Water Safety Partnership, said: “The personal motivation to make things better comes from a tragic accident with Charlie.
“Equally, and this is where Alona has played a massive part, the comments we have had on the petition from around 100,000 people are of wanting change, wanting improvements. There are some awful stories from people who have suffered tragic loss too. That keeps us going too.
“It’s for no other reason than to make it safe for other people, so no other families have to go through this in the future.”