How Kenilworth remembers

Reporter Carrie Catterall reflects on the tributes that followed two tragic deaths in 2011

• I REMEMBER hearing about an 18-year-old Kenilworth rugby player who was killed when his car left the A45 at Stretton on Dunsmore and hit a tree last New Years Eve 2010.

It’s always really sad to write about accidents like this, but it was especially sad as Alex Wallis was only 18.

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What was memorable about this accident, apart from the obvious tragedy, was how many people paid tribute to Alex.

His parents Christine and David, and his sister Ellie, even came to see me because they wanted a true representation of his life and his memory published in the paper.

Mr and Mrs Wallis told me how stunned they were by the amount of tribute messages they have received and said: “Since he died we’ve come to realise just how loved he was.

“His friends have been telling me that people from all over the place knew and loved him.

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“We’ve received messages from people living all over the world.

“The fact they actually contacted us shows what an impact he made on their lives.”

• IT IS always difficult to know if families would like a tribute piece to a loved one in the newspaper, but if I don’t ask then the family could really miss out.

Earlier this year I contacted Pat Doxey, after her daughter died due to breast cancer, aged 47, on Saturday March 19.

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At first Mrs Doxey was not sure about the tribute piece, but then decided it would be a good thing to do.

After the piece went in the paper, Mrs Doxey contacted me to say how pleased she was that she had remembered her daughter in this way.

Angela, the former owner of Silk and Silver in Talisman Square, and Cake Kingdom in Miller Court, was so well-known in the town that hundreds of people attended her funeral.

Her mother Pat said: “It’s difficult to explain Angela in words.

“She was loved by so many people and touched so many lives.”

To make a donation to Myton Hospice in memory of Angela Doxey go online.

www.virginmoneygiving.com/AngelaDoxey

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