Blackpool Tower to light up in tribute to couple

Dave and Sue Hayward sold their business in 2010 and set up the Children of Watamu charity

Blackpool Tower is to be lit up in orange to mark 15 years of a charity for orphaned children in Africa set up by two former hoteliers in the town.

Dave and Sue Hayward sold their business in 2010 and set up the Children of Watamu organisation before opening Happy House, a children's home in Kenya helping those who have been orphaned, abandoned or left in extreme poverty.

Mrs Hayward died in 2021 and the tower's lighting on Tuesday night falls on what would have been her 76th birthday.

Her husband, 83, said: "My wife, being what she was, fell in love with Africa and fell in love with the people and said 'we could do something to help these people' and my God did she."

He said they first visited the country on holiday in 2000 and saw "there was a great need for education in the area, a lot of children weren't going to school".

Blackpool Tower is often illuminated in special colours, such as here when it marked the coronation of King Charles in 2023

Mrs Hayward "could not wait to get back to see what she could do", he said, "so we built a school in the local village first and we went from strength to strength and got 250 kids sponsored in 18 months".

"In 2003 we became a registered charity. A lot of people helped us and Sue knew the right people to ask, she was so determined," he continued.

He said she would have been "absolutely over the moon" to see the tower lit up in their honour.

"One of our first children, who came from a very poor family, is now a captain in the Kenyan Navy," Mr Hayward said.

"My wife would have loved to have seen somebody like that, just one person to have made it."

Fifty-five children currently live at Happy House and they have written letters to every primary school in Blackpool to share their stories.