The family of Ipswich teen Tavis Spencer-Aitkens raised over £1,200 at a sports day in his memory.
Tavis was attacked and suffered a fatal wound in June and his mother Sharon Box, her sister Sinead Brown, and their good friend Stacey Read, held the event with the aim of launching the Tav’s Life community project in his name.
The event raised over £1,200 and Ms Box hopes that the funds can be put towards the opening of a new youth centre.
She said: “We are going through a lot of heartache and grief and this is something positive that we can do, this is the first event of many which we hope to do in Tavis’ name”.
She continued: “We are still very angry, but we are trying to channel that anger into a good cause.
“What has happened to us all, we are not going to let that destroy us, it’s not going to destroy our lives, something good has to come out of this.”
Sharon’s sports day was held at the Murray Road Recreation Ground on Sunday, September 2 and featured several teams made up of Tavis’ friends and family.
Sharon took part in the event alongside her sister Sinead and friend Stacey under the team Tav’s Life, named after their community project.
Sharon said: “Tavis loved his sport, he did swimming, basketball, football, he was fantastic football player.”
The children and teenagers who took part know Sharon through their friendship with Tavis and competed in classic events like javelin, tug of war and running on the day.
The winning team, Nacton Spartans, featured many of Tavis’ closest friends and Sharon believes that the relationship her and her son had with the community will allow her to change their lives.
She said: “Tavis was a very well known young man and the kids in his area know me and trust me, they know this is positive, we hope that we can make them go down the right path.”
“Eventually we want to open a centre or a unit in his name, a safe place for children and teenagers to come, we need to get them off the streets and give them a space where we can work with them.
“We are hoping it will help these kids.”
Sharon’s next event will be a prom night held in her son’s name.
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