*Note this is a genuine page set up with the permission of Tiina, Martti’s mother and by the founder of Lads Need Dads which Martti was a beloved member of.  We have now exceeded the goal and have been overwhelmed with the generosity of donors. Please be assured monies raised will be used to give Martti the send off he deserves and surplus used to support his family in their difficult road ahead. 

Martti sadly and suddenly left this world on May 18th 2021. We do not know the reason but he leaves a huge hole behind in the lives of his family, friends, team Lads Need Dads, his teachers and anyone who had the privilege of knowing him.
Martti had the gift of making people smile. He was fun-loving, sensitive and had a heart of gold. He was generous and caring and from an early age was a young carer, helping care for his mum, and then the past couple of years, his young nieces and nephews who came to live with them. 

Martti came to mine and Lads Need Dads attention in 2018 when he joined the Lads Need Dads programme. I assessed him and saw a boy lacking in confidence and full of self doubt. Through patience and time, he learned to trust our team and started to fully engage and quickly formed a tight group of friends often taking a leadership role in the group. He was popular with our mentors as his engaging and cheeky personality was infectious.  He enjoyed learning lots of new life skills, volunteering in his community and coming out on trips with us.  We recently bought him a bike over lockdown so that he could get out and about. It was yellow, his favourite colour. ☀️ 

Martti never moaned and always presented as an optimist even if things were not going his way. His life, at times in an overcrowded small house with lots of caring responsibilities, was not an easy one and he could have been justified to complain away, yet he never did.

I last messaged him on Sunday the 16th May just to check in with him. He was his usual upbeat self, and was looking forward to getting together this Friday with his group and other members of LND.  My last words to him were: “keep being the wonderful you”, and he replied. “I will”. 

His passing leaves an unimaginable painful hole in his mother’s life, (her only son), and his sister’s.    

Marttis family have no funds to fund his funeral costs and we want to take this burden from them by raising the money they will need as navigating their way through this pain is not going to be easy. 

Thank you for your donation - it will mean a lot to Martti’s family and to Martti who loved them so much x