Derek’s Legacy

When you lose a loved one very rarely can something positive be taken out of the situation. But for one Hunter Valley family, they have honoured the life of their son, husband and father by raising funds, to try to find a cure for the cruel disease that took his life, brain cancer.

Derek Kerry was just 32 when he died after a tremendous battle with a brain tumour in 2013. He left behind his wife and three children, along with his extended family and many friends.

This July, just a few years after he died, the community of Rawdon Vale in the picturesque Gloucester Tops put on ‘A Day for Derek’ to raise much needed funds for brain cancer research, and fondly remember the mate they lost too soon.

Thousands of people took the opportunity to visit ‘Airlie House’, one of the Gloucester Tops icon properties for the day of rural fun and fundraising for the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.

Derek’s mother Suzanne Landers was overwhelmed by the level of support. “It was an amazing combination of the town businesses and the rural community, and just so many folk from the whole region helping out, not just the Gloucester folk,” she said.

Story Penny Evans. Pictured: Suzanne Landers with Derek’s children.