Tributes over response to teenage death

A DISTRAUGHT father of a 17-year-old who died following a freak cricketing accident has told of the "phenomenal" response from friends and members of the public to the teenager's death.

Stephen Govier spoke for the first time about his son Philip since he died in hospital two weeks ago.

He spoke of his son's joy of living, the plan for a memorial in the family's home village of Hoxne and his own determination that funds raised in the teenager's memory would go to specific causes.

Mr Govier, 47, his wife Jenny and their two other children Ian, 16, and Lindsay, 13, have been touched by the level of public sympathy following Philip's death.

The teenager suffered serious head injuries in a collision with a team-mate when they were both trying to catch the ball in a match at Diss Cricket Ground on May 25.

Philip, a sports all-rounder, was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and then transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where he died four days later.

Mr Govier said the response to his son's death from friends, ordinary members of the public, sports clubs and other organisations had been "phenomenal". The family has received more than 600 letters and they were still arriving each day.

"One day we must have received 200 letters. People were pushing them through the door and they were arriving by post," added Mr Govier.

A significant number of the letters contained donations, some of them anonymous, and the total has already reached £750.

A memorial appeal is being launched in aid of the work of SportAid, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and Addenbrooke's Hospital neuro critical care unit.

It will be co-ordinated by a committee with representatives from the Govier family, Diss Cricket Club, Hoxne Football Club – for whom Philip also played – and Hartismere High School.

Donations in Philip's memory can be sent to Ipswich and Norwich Co-operative Society Funeral Service, 10 Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, IP4 1HW.