The heartbroken family of a “loving and caring” Dundee teenager who passed away suddenly earlier this year plan to set up a charity to help others in her memory.
Lennix Hughes, 16, died after taking unwell at a property in the city in the early hours of Saturday March 4.
Her family have since been told Lennix died of a cardiac arrest.
Now her devastated parents hope to establish a charity named Lennix Hughes: Forever 16 as her legacy.
Her mum Wendy Bertie said: “We know this is an ambitious plan and it’s at the early stages but Lennix was the most loving and caring girl and we feel this would be the most appropriate way to remember her.
“Lennix was such a caring person – she could never pass a homeless person in the street without getting us all to hand over what money we had in our pockets to them.”
Wendy said the hope was to raise enough money to buy a lodge somewhere local.
It would be then rented out and all profits would go to various local charities.
She added: “We think Lennix would love that and it would be an amazing ongoing charity in memory of our much-loved, beautiful daughter.”
Mum: ‘We are going through hell on earth’
Wendy added that they would also like to be able to give families going through similar tragedies a break in the lodge rent-free.
She said: “We are going through hell on earth – we have been given a life sentence and we know that other families will also go through this.
“All we have wanted to do is shut ourselves away -we have barely been out and we know that in this position you just want to shut yourselves away.
“Perhaps a lodge could give another grieving family that chance.
“We have been overwhelmed by the support of so many people and we want to give something back in Lennix’s name.”
Other fundraising events planned
The family are now planning a series of events to try to raise enough money to buy a lodge while investigating how to go about setting up the charity.
The first of these events was a sponsored walk this Sunday.
The family hope the walk from Carnoustie Golf Hotel to Broughty Ferry Beach will raise around £1000.
They are also planning a big birthday ball to celebrate Lennix’s 18th birthday, which would have been next April.
Wendy said: “This will also be a fundraising event, and as well as marking her big birthday, it will help others.”
Other fundraising events in the pipeline include a walk up Ben Nevis and a dance show at the Gardyne Campus organised by RC Dance.
Wendy said Lennix was part of the dance school since she was a little girl and dancing was a massive part of her life.
Tributes poured in for ‘beautiful’ Lennix
Among those who paid tribute to Lennix following her death was Grove Academy headteacher Graham Hutton.
He said: “Lennix was a lovely girl who was a caring soul and it is a tragic end to a beautiful girl’s young life which has been cut dreadfully and painfully short.”
Family friend Gill Young, who set up a fundraising page to help support her family at the time described Lennix as “an absolute beauty inside and out”.
