KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY
As a new children’s charity launches today, Nicky Solloway meets the family determined to do good work in memory of a much-loved wife and mother.
Charity aims to do good work in memory of much loved wife and mother
A FAMILY from Kirklees is launching a new children’s charity today to honour the memory of a mother and grandmother who dedicated her life to helping youngsters.
From West Yorkshire to South America, June Dewhirst spent as much time as she could with children struggling under difficult circumstances. After she sadly passed away in April last year, her husband and two sons searched for a way to keep her memory alive.
Graham Dewhirst, who was married to June for 40 years, explains: “Some of June’s happiest times were when she was surrounded by children and she had an innate ability to bring out the best in them.”
June was diagnosed with cancer surrounding her oesophagus in August 2013 and despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she died eight months later.
The family is launching Let June Make A Difference to help disadvantaged children in Kirklees, at a special reception in Batley today.
Graham, who works in the financial services industry, is investing half a million pounds of his own money to give children opportunities they may not otherwise have.
He came up with the idea to set up a charity in his wife’s name and called a family meeting to see if the couple’s two sons, Matthew and Phillip, agreed. They thought it was a great idea. The charity will provide grants to impoverished children in North Kirklees to allow them to take part in events or activities they would otherwise be unable to afford.
“As a family, we are rooted to the North Kirklees area and felt setting up a charity to help local children would be a fitting way to honour her memory,” says Graham. “We’d like to give away £25,000 a year. We don’t know in what sizes but probably no more than £500 per award which means we’ve got to find upwards of 50 qualifying applications a year.
“The whole purpose of it is in the name. “It’s about making a difference and so we want the money to be event-driven.
“A good example would be a child who wanted to go on the school trip or camp but whose parents can’t afford to send him or her.”
Children applying for the grants will have to be referred by their school, church or other organisation.
June, who died at the age of 62, had a tough childhood. She was bullied and abused by her stepfather, which made her determined to help disadvantaged children when she grew up.
“June’s mother was unmarried. Nowadays no-one would blink at that but in 1951 that was a big deal,” says Graham.
She was born at a Salvation Army children’s home in Manchester and was brought up in Ravensthorpe, near Dewsbury. Her mother came back to West Yorkshire and she married a policeman when June was two. Her stepfather then adopted her.
“He was an absolute tyrant. She was abused, physically and mentally and bullied. I think she determined that she would do whatever she could for any children she came into contact with and that was because her own childhood was just so miserable.”
Her mother went on to have four more children and June sang gospel songs in a family trio with her two brothers at Salvation Army services.
“When they used to rehearse her step father would bash them around if they got the wrong notes, he was just awful.”
June met Graham through the Salvation Army and they got married and then had two sons.
“She was a fantastic mother. We moved to Buckinghamshire and she got a job as an assistant at a school for children with special needs.”
The couple moved back to Yorkshire and June was asked to start a mother and toddler group through the Mirfield Corp of the Salvation Army. She worked at the Edward Bear Mother and Toddler Group for several years.
“Every summer she invited all the kids that she’d ever had at the mother and toddler group with their mothers and grandmothers and they all came up to the house. She organised a Teddy Bear’s Picnic with bouncy castles, sandwiches and strawberries and cream. It was fantastic and she did that for a number of years”
A few years later, The Salvation Army helped her to organise a trip to Ecuador where she stayed for a couple of months as a volunteer for a children’s project.
“The kids in Ecuador just loved her. They would come knocking at the door to ask when she was coming out. She was just fantastic. “I would have loved to have had the idea for the charity when she was alive. She wouldn’t have allowed us to use her name, it would have been a bit too obvious for her but she would have found the potential beneficiaries for us in a heartbeat.”
Graham says they could have just given the money to another children’s organisation in June’s name, as she supported many different charities.
“But we thought, actually why don’t we try to do this ourselves? We’re excited and occasionally daunted but if you know Kirklees, the need is huge and this is our backyard. It’s what’s made us what we are.”
Some of June’s happiest times were when she was with children. Graham Dewhirst who has set up a new charity in memory of his late wife.