Thirty-one friends and family of an East Finchley 25-year-old who died in a paragliding accident two years ago travelled to Nepal to help lay the foundations of one of three early childhood development centres being built in his memory.
Guy Joseph was a keen adventurer who worked as a scuba-diving instructor in East Timor and the remote island of Flores, where he learned to speak Indonesian and was a popular figure with the locals. His fatal accident was in the Spanish Pyrenees.
The Guy’s Trust set up in his name has raised £100,000 in just a year.
NGO Action Aid and local Nepalese builders who knew Mr Joseph from the time he spent there learning how to paraglide were also involved in the construction launch.
Mr Joseph’s mother, Vicky, said that watching the group, “all in Guy’s Trust T-shirts, I was struck by the paradoxes of the situation, such as how much Guy would have loved the experience and that none of us would have been here had he still been with us.
“As I handed the memorial plaque with Guy’s name to the team that will finish work on the school, the tears flowed. But they were accompanied by an enormous sense of pride.”
Close friend Hannah Weisfeld said there had been “a real understanding of who Guy was”.
To get more from community, click here to sign up for our free community newsletter.