Hey everyone,

Last month we lost our friend and brother, Karl. It's taken me a long time to get round to this because what the fuck are you even supposed to say.

When I think of Karl the first thing that I see is their beautiful cheeky smile, the teeth, the nose flare. There's a lot of things you wish you'd done differently when you lose someone like this, but I know I appreciated every one of those smiles I got.

We were first introduced to Karl when they arrived at WAR Camp when they were 15 years old - best donation we ever got ;) They were invaluable to the resistance against HS2 in Wendover. Even at their young age they brought so much skills and knowledge to the campaign, and were a dab hand at winding up security. This is also where we first saw the many outfits of Karl. You've probably seen some photos going round of Karl in their carrot suit fitting into a line of security, or you may even remember being hit into the head with a plank of wood while wearing their riot helmet.

You might have met Karl on one of their adventures into London. I remember them leaving camp and coming back weeks later with a whirlwind of stories from skipping missions to battling The Lockfather. I loved listening to them recount tales from this time.

From WAR Camp Karl moved up to Manchester and joined our big squat family, and we got to learn even more about them and see them grow. Over the years we saw more amazing outfits, watched many musicals, played boardgames, hundreds of skipping missions, sent it to free parties, saw Europe, played the sax, climbed everything, did acrobatics, you helped so many people - a natural caring person.. I remember drunkenly falling hands first into a pile of glass at a squat party and Karl taking me to clean myself, and getting up in arms at the lack of welfare and first aid. Eventually they found some bandage, wrapped me up, and we continued to party. What will we do without you Karl. We made local news a bunch of times, we built, barricaded, fixed things, broke things, fuck.. it was meant to be forever, you had so many plans, but I guess that's not how it works, who knows.

It's been so beautiful getting to hear everyone's individual experiences of Karl, we all have something that we can keep with us for the rest of our lives. It also breaks my heart to see the massive hole he's left behind. If you're reading this you have a community. Lets reach out to each other, visit each other. No amount of time or distance will stop us from supporting us, it will always be beautiful when we meet again.

So much love <3

SHABLONGIEEEEE!!!!

Karl's funeral will be held on the 11th of May at Dukinfield crematorium, SK16 4LJ at 2pm. There will be a wakes happening in Manchester at the Niamos and in Hulme Park.

This is a fundraiser to help pay back some of the funeral costs, over £3000 so far. It's also to help people who need help getting to and from the crematorium / Manchester, so please get in touch if you need help or can offer lifts.

We're also collecting photos for the funeral and for a shared file for people to access so if you've got some photos please message and I'll let you know how you can send them.