Lee Hetherington’s Funeral – an update

A updated message from Paddy Douglas….

Lee’s funeral will be on Wednesday 28 July at St Helens Church, Belle Vue Bank, Low Fell at 11.15, followed by Gateshead Crematorium, then Gateshead Rugby Club.

There will be some restrictions at the Church. Masks must be worn  & there will still be social distancing. Only every other pew  can be occupied by a maximum of six people. If two people walk in on their own & sit at a pew then nobody else can sit in the same pew!! So please before you go into church organise yourselves into groups of six then go in. Apologies for this but this has only come to light today. We will have a few of us helping to organise this outside. Any other changes we will let you know.

With respect to the crematorium, as Lee said to me, that he wanted it to be a quick in and out affair and he understood that he, himself would just be going in and not out! That’s Lee’ sense of humour!

With regards to the crematorium the family are more than happy for people to go straight to the rugby club after St Helens as by the time people might get there it will be over. There are also some restrictions at the crematorium in terms of there is no standing inside. So please go straight to the rugby club if you can.

Now the rugby club which is formally known as the wake but Lee prefers it be known as ‘Lee’s Party’ where he doesn’t want people to be sad and miserable, he wants everyone to celebrate his life, have a good drink, some food and a good laugh. Most of us have stories we can tell each other about him that we’ve been involved in over the years.

In memory of Lee there will be a charity collection at his funeral for St Oswald’s Hospice for the fantastic care they gave him in his final journey. The family have also set up an online donation page with the following link.

uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/LeeHetherington2

Please give generously for a great organisation that have struggled to raise funds in recent times because of the pandemic.