Grateful gran says thank you
Photographer Stu Norton met cyclists, strollers and dog walkers, all enjoying the sea air at Marine Walk, Roker.
A Sunderland grandmother says she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received since an electrical fire devastated her home.
Gran-of-seven Sonia Mackel has been told she and pet chihuahua Hollie are lucky to be alive after the blaze swept through the home they share in Rowan Avenue, Harraton, last month.
"It was an e-bike battery that was on charge at the time when it sparked and started sending out black smoke and flames,” she said.
“I grabbed the dog and my phone. I rang the fire brigade, then I got out.”
Sonia has not been allowed back in to examine the state of her home. “Nobody is allowed in because it is structurally unsafe,” she said.
“The ceiling has come down in the living room and the hall.
“The fire chief did say to me that it was uninhabitable and that the fire had spread so quickly in five minutes that if I had been in any other room in the house,
I would not have been able to get out.”
Sonia is hopeful that the only things she really wants to recover from the house will have survived: “The one thing that does bother me is my photographs,” she said
"The structural people have said it’s OK for my daughter Angela to go in and check the cupboard, but it is not safe to go into any of the other rooms, so the good news is that the cupboard might still be standing.
Sonia has been a community volunteer in Penshaw for years and friend Katherine Mason-Gage set up a Go Fund Me page to raise funds to help – one of two she would would create
within days of each other to help with the after-effects of a fire.
The page had an initial target of £400, but has raised more than three times as much.
"We have a great community spirit in Penshaw,” said Sonia. “Katherine said to me ‘You have given to people all your life and it is time for you to to receive now’.”
Sonia has been overwhelmed by the donations and messages of support that she has received. “I would really like to say a big ‘Thank you’ for everything that everybody has done, whether it be money or donations,” she said.
"It has really helped.”
‘He was genuinely one of the nicest lads you will ever meet’ – friends and family pay tribute to popular Seaham dad who died aged 53.
Much-loved Chris Kirby, who has been described as a ‘wonderful man inside and out’, died following a battle with metastatic cancer after he was first diagnosed in 2019.
A talented local footballer, Chris made 206 appearances for Seaham Red Star during his younger years scoring 52 goals including four hattricks.
Having a passion for football from the age of eight, Chris played for a number of Northern Football League clubs over the years and was a dedicated and loyal Sunderland fan.
Friends and family as well as the Seaham community have paid tribute to the ‘genuine and kind’ 53-year-old, who worked on the production line at Nissan for more than a decade.
Chris, a loyal season ticket holder at the Stadium of
Light, was tragically diagnosed with metastatic cancer in 2019 and underwent numerous rounds of treatment but sadly passed away on March 5 – leaving behind parents Raymond and Patricia Kirby, 20-year-old son Ben Kirby, partner Paula Dawson and brother Paul and sisterin-law Karen Kirby.
His heartbroken family said Chris ‘enjoyed life so much’ especially socialising and going to work. He always was playing music and was a big Stone Roses fan.
Chris met partner Paula seven years ago at Marlborough Club and the pair were inseparable ever since.
Friend of more than 40 years, Ian Gleghorn said: "He was quite a quiet fella. He was very generous and really well-known and wellliked in the Seaham area and in the Northern Football League community.
"He was a striker, a very good striker. He could play midfield too but if you were managing you put him in as a striker.
"He always loved football and he played almost all his life.
"Chris was a very good local footballer, he could have
gone further but it never happened for him. He was a a proper Sunderland supporter, like the group of us, he never gave up and kept the faith for our sins.”
The pair first met whilst playing against each other but swiftly became friends and played alongside each other for various clubs.
"He never missed a match and would go to away games as much as he could,” said Ian, 56.
"He was genuinely one of the nicest lads you will ever meet. He was really loyal and once you had him as a friend he’d always be there for you.
"He was a popular, just gorgeous lad to knock around with – no one had a bad word to say about him. He had time for everyone and everyone had time for him.”
A Go Fund Me page with funds going towards a memorial plaque hopefully at Seaham Red Star. So far more than £400 has been donated and any additional funds will go to Help for Heroes.Chris’s funeral takes place at St Cuthbert Church in Seaham today, and the procession will drive by the sea front at roughly 1pm where family and friends, unable to attend the funeral because of Covid restrictions,