Juliet Coombe looks at how one young man is trying to help support the victims of the Sri Lanka attacks by improving local medical facilities, so that the people living in the island and those that travel to it will do so in the knowledge that it will be far more prepared and safe in the future.
The Strangers’ Room in the House of Commons seemed strangely appropriate for a gathering of people, who had mostly never met before, but had come together to support the official launch of The Amelie and Daniel Linsey Foundation, by their 21 year old brother David Linsey. His idea is to support the devastated victims of the Sri Lanka terror bombing attacks of the churches and hotels. An incredibly brave young man who lost Daniel, his 19 year old brother, and Amelie, his 15 year old sister, in the Easter bombings, while they were innocently eating breakfast on the third floor of the Shangri - La Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. David was supposed to be on holiday with his siblings and will never forget the phone call from his dad, telling them all the terrible news. “You never think it will happen to you, and my father, when in hospital, was struck by the lack of resources for such a catastrophic event,” says David, who then felt the only way for his brother and sister to be remembered for the kind and giving people they both were, was to carry on doing what they were both brilliant at - helping others.
David, as he looked into the issues of sending in trauma doctors, realised that the carnage of the bombs is only the start of a much bigger series of issues that involve improving the medical facilities that were overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy. For example, fast portable Ultrasound and MRI machines, which cost upwards of £20,000, for powerful diagnostic information that allows the surgeon to map the body prior to surgery, and providing ventilators for artificial respiration while critical procedures are being performed.
David has been taking advice on how to rebuild not only the lives of the survivors, but also to raise funds for essential equipment, lacking in the hospitals. David says, “In a country where over 3,000 people die on the roads each year, this equipment will be useful far beyond responding to terror attacks.”
Over the summer, David is planning to go to Sri Lanka for the first time, to see where his brother and sister died and meet with people in key places around the island, to reassure them that the world has not abandoned them in their greatest hour of need. He felt so strongly about this that he has taken a year out, from his degree course at Oxford University.
For all of us in this stately room with his lovely grandmother, in the seat of government, listening to the speeches, surrounded by all its finery and century’s of judicious ruling, one has to ask the question, ‘What has happened to the world in the last decade, where people will smile as they blow up themselves and innocent people while they pray in church, or sit innocently eating breakfast in a hotel? Amelie and Daniel were loving, caring people, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, among 250 other people who lost their lives, most of them Sri Lankan. A horrific terrorist event that tragically threatens every country in the world today and is a cold reminder to me of its seriousness, when tucking my two sons into bed after the launch they asked me, “Is it safe here in London?” The honest and tragic answer is: nowhere right now is a hundred per cent safe from this unpredictable and barbaric behaviour that comes of using drugs to programme people to commit the most disgusting acts against humanity. David wants his brother and sister to be remembered for helping to educate the children of the victims, and for those left without a source of income, due to the attacks. He wants the www.amelieanddaniel.org website to spread their love around the world, and through the good works of the foundation’s donations and through education, he hopes to break this cycle of violence that rips whole families apart and leaves a country numb and lost from the terrible aftershock.
Following the success of his charity art auction at Carlton House Terrace on July 1, with wonderful works by St Martin’s, Chelsea College of Art, David is delighted to announce that the organisation has been given the backing of the High Commissioner, Manisha Gunasekera, in its mission to help victims and bring Sri Lankans back together in the wake of Easter Sunday. The Sri Lankan Society, along with other groups, made a valuable donation of £1,000 to support the flying out of academic medical leaders in the treatment of trauma, to support the recovery process of many of the patients whose lives have been turned upside down by the event.
Each painting or photograph successfully auctioned will help make the change we need to see in the world. David like his amazing siblings that lost their lives will try to help all those who are suffering to find their way back from the mental horrors they, like himself are experiencing from this tragic event.
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