Richard Whelan

UPDATE: We would like to thank everyone for their phenomenal, kind, thoughtful and generous donations to our GoFundMe page for Richard Whelan. We have unexpectedly received confirmation that the estimated costs to bring Richard home have reduced, and therefore we have reached the amount needed.

Richard will be making his journey home to the UK on Thursday, 15th May.

Richard's parents and family will now be able to make arrangements to lay Richard to rest, the cost of which will be met by them.

On behalf of the family, the utmost sincere gratitude is conveyed to you all.

Accordingly, we have closed donations to this GoFundMe page.

We cannot begin to put into words to express the devastation that has fallen on our family. On Friday, 2nd May, we received heart wrenching news that our much loved son, brother, grandson, cousin, nephew and friend, Richard Whelan had passed away.

Our hearts are broken, we are all in utter shock and disbelief.

Richard died in Vietnam and we desperately need to bring him home to us.

We have made enquiries with the authorities in Vietnam and The British Embassy and the expenses to bring Richard back to the UK is going to be £25,000, which we cannot raise alone.

We so very much need to be able to say goodbye to Richard as a family and lay him to rest peacefully in his hometown.

Loosing someone you love is devastating, having them so far away is all that much harder to bear.

We need help to bring Richard home, we need for us to be close with him again.

As a family we need to grieve our loss of Richard, but we are unable to bring him home without help and have no choice but to ask with the utmost gratitude, for monetary contributions, to raise the funds needed to bring Richard home to the UK. If you are able to contribute or share this page so we can raise the much needed funds, we would be sincerely grateful.

We would like to this opportunity to say ‘ thank you’ for the lovely messages we have received, providing us with some comfort, knowing the love we have for Richard is a feeling shared by so many, of the funny, charming and handsome person, that was Richard. We appreciate the heartfelt love sent to our family at this truly devastating time.

** Please be advised, the recipient of all funds raised will be received by Richard's Auntie, Linda Dolan, on behalf of Richard's parents at their request **