Charity event’s return to keep alive victim’s memory
FRIENDS and family of a Derbyshire medical student who was stabbed to death in Borneo are to come together this weekend to commemorate his life with a charity event.
Neil Dalton, from Ambergate, was murdered in August 2014, along with his friend Aidan Brunger, from Kent.
Annual charity event Neil’s Day, which wasn’t able to go ahead last year due to Covid, will return in 2021.
It will take place on Sunday at Belper Amateurs Cricket Club’s ground in Alderwasley, and Neil’s friends and family hope that it will be the most successful held so far.
The day is centred on a cricket tournament in memory of Neil’s connection to sporting teams in and around Belper, but it has grown to be so much more, with live music long into the evening after the cricket finishes, food and drink served throughout the day and lots of activities for families.
This year, Fresh Basil will be serving up paella and a selection of fresh lunch items, while the Black Swan Idridgehay will be providing the drinks and refreshments. There will be cake stalls, a bouncy castle and lots of other mini events happening for people to enjoy and fundraise for an important cause.
The cricket ground is where Neil played his home games for Belper Amateurs.
Friends say he touched the lives of the many people he worked alongside, treated as a student doctor, played sport and studied with. For his closest friends and family, a day doesn’t go by without them thinking of him.
Anthony Nolan was Neil’s chosen charity and he took part in a coastto-coast cycle challenge from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay to raise all-important donations. The charity specialises in saving the lives of people with blood cancer such as leukaemia, by matching them to people willing to donate their bone marrow, or blood stem cells, for lifesaving transplants.
Neil himself was on the stem cell register as the charity finds and matches donors, of the correct tissue types, with patients with blood cancers and disorders who need lifesaving stem cell transplants, giving them a second chance of life. It was a charity close to his heart and his chosen profession of medicine.
Since Neil’s death, his friends and family have carried on the good work he started by raising £70,000 overall for Anthony Nolan. Oliver Deeming, one of Neil’s closest friends and a teammate, has played a pivotal part in organising the annual charity event since it began seven years ago. He said: “We’re really pleased to be able to host Neil’s Day in the usual format this year. We’re very proud of what we achieved last year with the ‘Orange Mile,’ a virtual walk/run/ cycle where anyone could take part no matter where in the world they were but we’re back to doing what we do best and hope to take the event to a new level this year. We know how important Neil’s Day is to the friends and family of Neil and, of course, Anthony Nolan, who do such vital work in saving the lives of people with blood cancer.
“As a group of friends and Neil’s family, the pain of losing him never goes away but this is his legacy and I’m humbled to be part of something that remembers Neil in such a positive light. Ask anyone who knew Neil and they will tell you he was the politest, kindest and most generous person you’d meet, which is easy to say but I believe is exemplified in the work he started for charity and general impact he had on others around him.”
Rowena Bentley, senior community fundraising manager at Anthony Nolan, said: “For someone with blood cancer, a stem cell transplant could be their last chance of survival. And for that person, their family, and their friends, your support helps give them their second chance of life. We’re saving lives right now. Three lives a day, in fact.
“However, this isn’t possible without support like that given Neil’s Day each year.
“Almost £70,000 has been raised in loving memory of Neil Dalton, enough to fund 1,750 potential lifesaving stem cell donors on the Anthony Nolan register.”
Businesses or individuals wanting to get behind the cause or make donations to the raffle should contact Oliver Deeming on 07723396275 or email oliverdeeming@gmail. com. You can also visitjustgiving. com/fundraising/neilsdayviii
As a group of friends and Neil’s family, the pain of losing him never goes away.
Friend Oliver Deeming