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Ten years ago today on 22 June 2013 a young Kevin Bell was laid to rest in his home town of Newry, after being killed suddenly in an incident in New York.
Kevin always said he was going to be famous. Sadly that was only getting going when his life was cut short, although ten years later his name is known worldwide as the name of an incredible and unique Newry born charity - the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.
In the ten years of its existence KBRT has repatriated an astounding 1576 loved ones to their families in Ireland. Each one of these, a human tragedy but with the help of the Trust, their grieving family and friends were saved from the added stress of working out how to get their loved one home.
Twenty six year old Kevin was the son of Colin and Eithne Bell and brother of twin Brendan, Sean, Ciara, Eamon, Conor and Maeve. His father Colin explains "Kevin was one of seven children. He was our second set of twins, his twin is Brendan, and Kevin was quiet enough growing up at school, he was kind of in Brendan's shadow, but when he hit about 16/17 he became a massive character. He just loved life, loved crack, loved fun. He went to university and dropped out, but his great love was travel. He went to Australia and spent a year there. He visited Thailand and then he went over to New York and when he arrived in New York, he just loved New York."
Ten months after he arrived in New York tragedy struck when he came back to his apartment after being out one Saturday night. He got out of a taxi and a speeding white van out of control hit him and knocked him onto the road where he was hit by another car and died instantly.
People of Newry came around us like a blanket
What happened next wasn't in any script. Colin explains "It was an awful shock to us obviously and that's when the people of Newry came around us like a blanket, and anybody who could did fundraisers for us. There was a massive fundraiser in the Canal Court on the Tuesday night, Kevin had been killed on the Sunday. Aidan O'Rourke arranged a quiz which raised in the region of £45,000. You couldn't have moved, obviously we weren't there but we could follow it on our phones.
"There was a fun run and walk on the Thursday night and it raised £25,000 and people did all manners of things to raise money to bring Kevin home. The people were just unreal. At the end up there was a fundraiser in Australia where he had been, he'd made his mark there. There was a fundraiser in New York where he was killed, and all in all, there was something like £150,000 raised to bring Kevin home."
Reaching Out
After they brought Kevin home they were still left with a large amount of money. Colin said "We had all this money, it wasn't our money, and about a week or two after Kevin's death we heard of a young fella from Carryduff who died in Thailand, so we reached out to his parents and said, look we have this money, we will pay to bring your son home. A week or two after that we heard of a young fella from Sligo who had been killed in Las Vegas and again we reached out, and that was more or less the start of it."
Ryan Doyle
At that point It sort of took of a life of its own. "There was a young fellow from Leitrim, Castlewellan, a young fella called Ryan Doyle, they called him 'Wee Doyler' and he had been killed the year before Kevin, and there had been big fundraising for him, and his parents once they heard that we were using this money to help other families they came and gave us something in the region of £72,000. After that we said, right, okay we'll make this Kevin's legacy, and we applied for charitable status with the Northern Ireland Charity Commission and then we also applied for charitable status down south with the regulator and we became a regulated charity and in the 10 years since, we've brought home 1576 people home who have died tragically abroad." Colin said.
Family run
An incredible achievement for a tiny family run charity. Mairead Lynam on the desk is the only paid employee. Colin works full time at the charity and Eithne and their sons and daughters help out. "It's small, but it's family run, you know, all his brothers and sisters, and we've got a fantastic group of Trustees with various different skills who keep us right with all the regulations for Charity Commission. Of course, we're audited every year. We don't get any funding from government north or south, but to be honest, we don't need it because people are so good. It's self perpetuating." he explains.
Colin adds "We're so proud of Kevin, it was Kevin that started this really. He was he was a big character. As I say it originated in Newry, it was Newry born and it was the people of Newry, South Armagh, South Down who really gave us the impetus to go with it."
Kevin was killed on the 16th of June 2013. Colin a schoolteacher had just finished 39 years of teaching and went back to school in September but then Kevin's cousin, Eithne's sister's son, Paul Lambert was killed in a hit and run in San Francisco in February and after that he didn't return to school and has been full time with the charity ever since.
Repatriation
What happens is that a member of the family of the person who has passed away contact the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, sometimes via the Department of Foreign Affairs. "All we need from them is where the body is and the name of the Undertaker at home and we will take it completely out of their hands at a time when they don't know what's heads or tails. We can take it out of their hands, we can make the arrangements for repatriation and we can pay for it." Colin said
In the ten years they've built up a bank of Undertaker's worldwide who they can contact, and they'll do all arrangements and get the ball rolling. To date they have repatriated loved ones from 69 different countries including Cambodia, Ecuador, Nepal, New Zealand, Vietnam and Sierra Leone to name a few.
KBRT is a completely unique charity something of which all involved are very much aware and proud of. Colin said "No government pays to bring their people home and we are unique in that. But then that's because the Irish people are unique in community. It would be a typically Irish thing."
The Charity is Kevin's legacy and through it the Bell's have met so many great people. "It's like a club - It's a club you wouldn't want to be in, but we've met so many, many lovely people and become very friendly with a lot of them." Being involved has also helped with their grief "The whole fact of the matter is that Kevin didn't die for nothing. He has left his mark and his name is mentioned worldwide. He always said he would be famous, and in a kind of way he is." That's something that was endorsed on a recent visit to New York when they got a random taxi and the taxi driver produced Kevin's memorial card. Colin adds "That was just unreal. We were that shocked we never even got to the bottom of it ourselves but for him to have Kevin's [Memorial Card] I mean, he's from Palestine and obviously was a Muslim and for him to have that, I don't even know, I never even thought to ask him how he got it."
The Future
The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust are very lucky that financially they're very sound thanks to fundraisers from many of the families and friends of people who they have brought home. The team intend to continue what they are doing so well and sometime set up a plan of succession for the future. While it's not in their remit to carry out repatriations from Ireland they can give a donation.
If you want to find out more about the trust please go to kevinbellrepatriationtrust.com
