To provide financial assistance to bereaved families to repatriate the body of a loved one who died outside Ireland – that’s the main objective of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.

207 families have been helped in the three years since Kevin Bell (26) from Newry died following an accident in New York in June 2013. Overwhelmed by the support and the amount of fundraising that took place very rapidly in their home town of Newry to have Kevin’s body returned home, the Bell family decided to set up a trust to help other families in similar situations.

“It was amazing what happened after Kevin died,” Colin says. “There was an immediate frenzy of fundraising in Newry to bring him home. Very quickly, £150,000 was raised. As it happened, Kevin’s employers paid for his body to be flown back so we decided, even before the funeral, to set up a trust and use the pot of money raised to help other families who had experienced similar tragedies.”

GIVES PURPOSE

Doing something positive and practical like this helps to give Colin Bell purpose, he says.

“It’ll not bring your loved one back, but it’ll help the next family when they get the terrible news.”

Getting your loved one home as quickly as possible is very important, he says. “It’s not just because the family are in limbo, but the sooner you have the body home, the more likelihood there is of viewing the body and getting some kind of closure. The longer it goes on, the less chance there is of that happening.”

Kevin, a twin, had been out socialising on 15 June 2013 and was returning to his apartment by taxi.

“He got out of the taxi and was hit by a van and then a car. He was killed instantly.

“It’s the nightmare news no parent wants to get.”

Kevin had been in Australia for a year and then went to join friends working in construction in New York.

“He was having a ball,” his dad says. “Kevin was very outgoing. He loved Irish dancing, set dancing in particular, and he loved to travel.”

Kevin’s repatriation took place very rapidly because he had relatives in New York who could identify him and speed up the administrative process.

“He died in the early hours of Sunday and we had him home early on Wednesday morning – phenomenal speed because his aunt was able to help. In all the repatriations we’ve dealt with, that was the quickest time.”

ELEVEN BROUGHT HOME IN ONE WEEK

The fund was used to help another family very quickly.

“We knew Kevin wouldn’t be the last (Irish person to die abroad). Two weeks after Kevin was killed, we were able to help another family repatriate their son.”

During one week last October, the Trust helped bring 11 people home.

“It was a very bad week. Hopefully you don’t get too many weeks like that. We’ve brought a lot of people home from Australia but some also from Jamaica, South America, Cambodia, New Zealand, and the far east.”

Colin generally does the organising himself.

“If it’s an English-speaking country, you might have the Irish associations in cities abroad, which would help,” he says. “They would have experience of it and have preferred undertakers. It runs very smoothly from English-speaking countries like America, Canada and Australia. Elsewhere, I can bring in the likes of a UK repatriation company who have agents in that part of the world who will make arrangements for me.” Repatriation from Australia usually costs between $10,000 to $12,000 dollars. From the US it could cost $8,000-$10,000 dollars.

LEAVE IT TO US

No application for help is necessary. Usually it’s a phone call or contact through the website.

“It’s usually a friend or family member who’d heard of us that would ring or contact us through the website. We take it out of the hands of the family so that it’s a bit of the stress taken away. When you get news like that, you don’t know who to turn to or what to do. We say: ‘Leave it to us, we’ll get your loved one home.’”

The Trust survives by fundraising and receiving donations from the public.

“We work on a 32-county basis and depend on people’s generosity to continue. We don’t get any funding from the Northern Executive or from the Dail.”

For further information, visit http://kevinbellrepatriationtrust.com/ CL