Led by founding member Jon Stephenson, ‘The Allotmenteers’ from Northallerton have been growing vegetables for charity, in memory of their dear friend Paul Brennan (known as Bren).
Jon said: “Following the death of our friend Bren, we set up a memorial fund in his name with Herriot Hospice Homecare to say thank you for all the help and comfort they provided to him and his family.
“Bren passed away on the 4th November 2019, so to mark his anniversary – we all got together and decided to build a community shed naming it ‘Bren’s Den’ in his memory – to provide a space for plot holders to meet and shelter from the elements. We decorated the inside with some irreplaceable personal possessions and old music posters, we even painted a Mondrian canvas on the back and the inside ceiling red/white for his beloved Middlesborough F.C.
We’ve been building it all through the Winter! It’s taken months of hard work by friends, family and local businesses, who kindly helped by donating some of the building materials.
In the final push to finish it before the end of lockdown, we all had a whip round to buy the remaining materials needed to build a decking area and extend the roofing – so that we could have an outside meeting space to sit on and enjoy the coming summer.
I was so happy last week to finally take my 84-year-old Mum for a picnic in the sunshine on our new veranda. She loved Bren and was so proud of what we had all built in his honour.”
“We are all heartbroken that anybody could do something so horrible to ruin all the hard work and good feeling we’ve received. We got so many messages of goodwill and support from the local community that it felt like the whole of Northallerton was behind us in our heartfelt worthy cause.”
NY Police: Please help if you saw anything suspicious in the area on 17/4/21 or have any other information which could help us with this incident, call 101 or if you wish to remain anonymous call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Quote incident ref: 12210100309
Herriot Hospice Homecare would like to thank Jon, Michelle and all who are involved in supporting us in Paul’s memory through their ongoing fundraising activities. Should you wish to support their efforts you can do so at: