Offshore staff rally to raise funds for family of ‘well loved’ worker

Dozens of people have rallied to raise funds for a “gentle giant” North Sea worker who died earlier this year.

Karl Kirkland died January 18, aged 44, having just returned home from offshore when he faced health complications.

The rope access supervisor from Dunning, near Perth, spent 20 years in the industry.

He is survived by two young children, aged two and six, who friends and colleagues are seeking to raise funds for.

Upon hearing the news, Liam Coulson, who shared a room with Mr Kirkland for several years on the Nelson platform in the North Sea, decided to get in touch with the family and set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his friend’s young children.

“My initial thought was he’s got two kids, how is that going to affect them and his family financially?” he told Press and Journal sister website Energy Voice.

“He never had a bad word to say about anybody, he was just a really good guy.”

The goal is to give Mr Kirkland’s children “a little kickstart in life and put a little pot together to help their future”.

Describing his friend and former roommate, Mr Coulson said: “I’d known Karl for the last 10-15 years, he was a big guy, muscular, but a gentle giant.

“We worked together for many years and I worked with him on different platforms.

“Working offshore, you do form family relationships with people because you’re working with them and in the instance of Karl, I shared a room with him, so I got to know the guy very well.

“He was just a wellthought-of guy and it’s such a shame what’s happened.”

After hearing the news of his friend’s passing, Mr Coulson got in touch with Mr Kirkland’s mother to get her permission to set up the fundraiser for the family who was “very supportive” of the idea.

Mr Coulson could not speak highly enough of his friend, saying: “If the shoe was on the other foot, he would be the first to get something going for one of his friends or he would have been the first to put into the pot, that’s just the type of guy he was.”

Mr Coulson said that he would “really love for the offshore community to get together and donate what they can to help out in any way they can”.

Mr Kirkland’s funeral will be held on Friday February 17 at 2pm at Perth Crematorium for anyone who would like to pay their respects.

Initially aiming to raise £1,000 the GoFundMe page has so far topped £2,700 with more than 70 people making donations.

The fundraising page will remain open until February 28.

Much-missed father-of-two Karl Kirkland.