Friends of Alex launch fundraisers
RUN AND CYCLE EVENT IN AID OF MENTAL HEALTH GROUP AND LOCAL SEARCH AND RESCUE
FOR Alexander Stern’s family and friends, 2020 has continued to be an extremely sad year.
The body of the 36-year-old, from Kensington, was tragically found in the River Thames in Charvil, Berkshire on April 3.
Search and rescue teams had been searching for Mr Stern after he went missing while drinking with friends in Sonning on January 11. Although more than five months has passed since Mr Stern’s body was found, the pain for his family and friends isn’t any easier.
“Alex was a very outgoing guy,” Mr Stern’s cousin, James Shrager, said. “He loved being around people.
“He would always go for a coffee at a local coffee shop in the morning and strike up conversations with people on the table(s) next to him. He was very entrepreneurial and when the two of us were teenagers we used to spend hours talking about the different businesses we wanted to start together when we were older.
“He will be missed tremendously by his parents, sister, cousins and friends. We will miss his optimism and his joie de vivre, his smile and kindness and his ability to light up a room when he was around.”
Mr Shrager is now among more than a dozen people trying to raise money for Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue, who worked tirelessly in the hunt to find Mr Stern, and sidekick, a nonprofit community-based mental health organisation. On October 10, a group of Mr Stern’s closest friends – Will Hicks, Will Drew, James Hulme, Patrick Timmis and Henry Maclellan – will run from Sonning along the Thames on a 50-mile route back to one of Mr Stern’s favourite Chelsea pubs, The Hollywood Arms.
Alongside the run, Mr Shrager and a group of friends will cycle a 78-mile route, teaming up with the runners for the final stretch from Kew to Chelsea.
Finally, a third group will be joining up at Kew to run the final 10km. So far, those taking part have raised more than £18,000.
“We can never bring Alex back, but we hope that by doing this event, and through sidekick, that we can help others who might be feeling suicidal see there is always hope and stop other families and friends from losing loved ones,” Mr Shrager said.
One of the runners and a close friend of Mr Stern, Patrick Timmis, added: “Through the long and painful months after Alex’s disappearance, BLSAR worked tirelessly in their quest to find Alex, searching the river despite incredibly difficult conditions with almost continual flooding.
“This was a major operation over hundreds of man-hours with helicopters, drones, sonar, dogs and divers scouring the river in Sonning where Alex was last seen alive.
“Made up of an army of volunteers, we want to recognise their fantastic work and give something back to allow them to continue to help find other missing people.”
As well as the fundraiser, sidekick is running a month long campaign – ‘We all know an Alex’ – to encourage positive conversations to help prevent suicide.
The event, which began on World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, will run for a month until the event fundraising event on October 10, which is also World Mental Health Awareness day. To visit the fundraising page, go to www.localgiving.org/fundraising/ stern50/
For more information on sidekick visit www.sidekick.org.uk