Mortuary abuse victim's son channels anger into fundraising

Tom Mackelden said when his mother died it left a "huge empty space"

The son of a woman abused by a double killer in a hospital morgue has said he is channelling his anger by fundraising in his mother's memory.

David Fuller, 67, of East Sussex, abused at least 100 women and girls in two Kent morgues over 12 years.

In October, the family of Tania Mackelden from Staplehurst, who died in 2017, were told she was a victim.

Her son, Tom Mackelden, said: "You lose them once and then you feel like you lose them all over again."

He said: "David Fuller temporarily destroyed my memories of my mum, however, now I'm using that negative energy as motivation to help as many families out there as possible."

Mr Mackelden, now 24, was just 19 when his mother Tania died, aged 48, from breast cancer.

'Huge empty space'

"When she went, it was a huge empty space in my heart and that space has never been filled again," he said.

He threw himself into fundraising, raising £30k for Cancer Research through charity football matches, golf days, balls and a music festival. He also ran the London Marathon twice.

But then, in October last year, he was told his mother was abused by Fuller in Pembury Hospital mortuary.

Tom Mackeldon spoke about finding out his mother was abused after she died

Speaking about it for the first time, he said: "You lose them once and then you feel like you lose them all over again, in the most sickening way possible.

"But it has given me motivation to do something bigger and better than anything I have done before by starting a foundation in memory of my mum."

In April, a ball in Headcorn, Kent, will raise money for The Tania Mackelden Foundation.

He hopes the money raised will pay for holidays for cancer patients.

Fuller will never be released from prison.

In December, he was handed two whole-life sentences for murdering two women in 1987 with a concurrent 12-year term for his other crimes.

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