Charity football match to honour two-year-old boy

Hendrix had hypoplastic left heart syndrome

A charity football match is to be held later in memory of a two-year-old boy who from Devon who died with a heart condition.

James and Lauren Washbrook lost their son Hendrix in 2022, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

In 2023 the pair set up a charity, Marching On With Hendrix, which was set up to support bereaved parents.

The charity football match will be held at Buckland Athletic, in Newton Abbott, with gates opening at 12:00 BST and kick-off at 14:00.

The Marching On With Hendrix team - made up of family, friends, local footballers, ex-professionals and one current professional player - would play against Forever Green, a team of former Plymouth Argyle players.

The charity supports parents, grandparents and siblings by offering counselling, emotional support, and meaningful keepsakes such as memory bears and jewellery.

Mr Washbrook said: "We just felt like the support wasn't really available or wasn't right for us... so we we decided to set up on our own and and try and bridge that gap.

"We're entirely self-funded so every penny that goes out to our families is raised by us in the community that we that we're in... and the football match just happens to be the next one of those that we're doing."

'Grieve at your own pace'

Mr Washbrook said the event was open to all, with tickets £10 for adults, £2 for children and £20 for family tickets.

The money would go "towards families who have lost a child between birth and 18 years old", he said.

Mr Washbrook said his advice to parents experiencing a loss would be "grieve at your own pace".

"Everybody's different, although we we all go through the grieving process, it's not a linear journey by any stretch of the imagination I know," he said.

"Follow what your what your feelings are, and there's no right or wrong way of grieving."