Charities set up in memory of tragic train woman, 28
FAMILY and friends of a woman tragically killed after leaning out of a train window have set up two charities to continue her legacy.
Bethan Roper, from Penarth, died on a Great Western Railway train in Bath as she returned from a Christmas shopping trip with friends on December 1.
It is thought the 28-year-old was leaning out of the window of a train door when she was struck by a tree or branch as the train travelled at 85mph.
Now two charities have been created to continue her work after family and friends were left “with a big hole to fill” following her death.
Ms Roper’s father, Adrian Roper, 64, said: “Bethan’s tragic death left family and friends with a big hole to fill and a challenge to try and get something positive to take forward from her life.”
The Bethan Roper Trust will aim to continue her work helping refugees and asylum seekers, and ‘Let Sharks B’ will continue her work on shark conservation.
Mr Roper said: “I’m absolutely sure she would be really, really delighted about her good work in what she was passionate about being taken forward, but also I think she would approve of her friends, colleagues and family not just being paralysed by grief, but energised and coming together and strengthening our friendships and building new ones.”
Two months on from the tragedy Mr Roper spoke publicly for the first time about his daughter’s passion for fighting injustice and coping with her sudden death.
Mr Roper said: “I have found it really helpful to get stuck into this. Obviously, Bethan is irreplaceable, but for me to spend time with her friends and to hear the memories of her is wonderful.
“For me it is helping, it’s almost like having her around. But you know, everyone is grieving in a different way, and I can’t say that anyone is over what happened. But these trusts are definitely helping me and others.”
The Bethan Roper Trust will be launched at an event in September.
Ms Roper worked for a number of years at the Welsh Refugee Council and was “profoundly” supportive of their cause.
Mr Roper said: “Bethan was incredibly active in a range of ways but the most significant of her activities was her work with the Welsh Refugee Council.
“She did a student placement with them in 2012 and later worked in a number of roles for them.
“She was profoundly supportive of the cause of refugees.
“It was just logical for us to think we must take forward her memory and set up a charitable trust in her name to support her refugee work.”
He added: “The refugee launch will not just be saying we exist, but to bring all of the refugee and asylumseeker organisations, and refugees and asylum-seekers together so the launch event becomes a crowdsourcing activity. It’s so we don’t replicate what another charity is already doing.
“What we are particularly keen to do is to help agencies to collaborate.
“We are the newcomers, with a lovely young woman as our founding figure, and it’s a great opportunity to facilitate friendship across the sector and get ideas on what we can all do.”
The launch event on September 14 at 2pm will include food and three live music acts. Mr Roper will be performing himself at the event at the Adamsdown Family Centre, alongside an Iranian refugee singer and hopefully a Sudanese drummer.
One of Ms Roper’s other causes was shark conservation. She and her best friend visited South Africa four years running to volunteer at a conservation project.
Mr Roper said Let Sharks B, a reference to Ms Roper’s nickname ‘B,’ will be officially launched at a separate later event.
He said: “Another thing Bethan was very passionate about was shark conservation.
“They are not the monsters they are portrayed to be, but part of a healthy ecology of the ocean, and their risk of extinction is bad news for lots of other forms of life, including human beings.”
A preliminary investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) was released in January and an inquest is expected to held later this year.