On 20th June 2024 a remarkable 7-year-old George Hughes from Wigan will begin a mammoth charity golf challenge in memory of his daddy, Dave Hughes. George will be playing 9 holes of golf on 5 courses, in 5 countries and all in JUST 24 hours.
George is such an inspirational little boy, who with his daddy’s memory at the heart of his fundraising, has set himself a monumental fundraising target of £100,000 in support of the FHLTA and in 2024 he is on course to reach this tremendous amount.
If you would like to support George in his challenge and help him reach his fundraising target please sponsor him via the link below.
George’s fundraising finale will take place on the evening of Saturday 28th September 2024 at Village on the Green at Aspull in Wigan. There will be food, music and celebrations as George’s final fundraising amount will be revealed.
Please come along to support George – for tickets contact:
tony.sedgwick@bshg.com
or call 07785710889
All of us at the FHLTA are so grateful to George and his family for supporting our charity which gives hope to so many people and their families.
Tony, George’s very proud grandad shared George’s story with the FHLTA and told us he is, “Georges caddy, golf partner but more than anything the proudest and luckiest grandad in the World”.
In 2018, when George was just 18 months old his daddy, Dave Hughes, sadly passed away at the Freeman Hospital, 11 weeks after receiving the gift of life – a heart transplant. Dave was under the team at the Freeman Hospital for several years, first receiving a LVAD, which worked well for years, then needing a new heart and was put on the urgent transplant list. He was also given a Berlin heart to see if this could save him, although sadly that didn’t work.
During time at the Freeman Hospital George’s mummy, Louise Hughes, then 26 years old, would spend months at a time living in the on site flats to make sure she was there for Dave, whilst her little baby was over 200 miles away in Wigan being cared for by his grandparents. It was at this time Louise saw first hand all the professional and caring nurses who inspired her to train as a nurse herself. Louise did just that and all during Covid 19 and fully qualified in 2022 and now works at Wigan Hospital with a dream of becoming a transplant Co-Ordinator.
As a family they saw first hand how the FHLTA offered amazing support to Louise and other transplant families. The late Derek Airey (then Chairman) and his wife Pat, plus other members of the charity supported with accommodation, a shoulder for Louise, as well as spending hours just sitting talking to her and reassuring her they were there for her – as her family could only make weekends bringing George up to see her. The family state the medical team at the Freeman Hospital were ultra professional, whist also being human and so understanding of Louise’s situation during such a difficult time.
Despite Dave’s passing the family are forever grateful to everyone connected with both the FHLTA and all the medical staff at the Freeman Hospital.
Following Dave passing away the family wanted to do something to say thank you to the FHLTA and began fundraising to support the charity. This initially started as a charity golf day and grew from there, with George doing various challenges whilst talking about the FHLTA to support with fundraising and promotion of organ donation.
To date George has raised over an amazing £80,000 for the FHLTA and is on track in 2024 to reach his milestone of £100,000 – mind blowing for a 7-year-old boy. Fundraising become so much harder due to the cost-of-living crisis as we recognise all families have their own preferred charities to support. By doing such a unique challenge the aim was to grab the attention of, not just the golfing community, to also grab people’s attention and touch their emotions, in the hope they would donate to George’s challenge. What has been even more remarkable is George has raised this money without the support of anyone famous or any big social media influencers, who could easily get George to his target, although no one has stepped up, despite attempts to reach out to these people.
After losing her husband Louise was on a mission to promote organ donation. Louise and her mum, Kath, would have a pop-up stand promoting organ donation, spending hours in shopping centres, supermarkets and even in the entrance of Heinz factory (the biggest employers in George’s hometown in Wigan). The mission was to get as many people as possible to register to be organ donors, as well as sharing their wishes with their families. It would be amazing to think that one of them people have gone on to save the lives of others by donating a vital organ.
Whilst Dave’s passing was so sad there has been so many positive things to come from this life changing event. Louise pursuing a new vocation in life – becoming a nurse and George gaining coverage for from national newspapers and numerous TV appearances talking about his love of golf and the reasons he got into the sport – how he’s doing his daddy so proud.
Finally, in 2025 Louise is due to get married to Alex, who the family see as Georges new daddy. More recently Louise and Alex have added baby Jack to the family and the family talk about how they know Dave will be so glad Louise has found happiness and George gets to call Alex, daddy – “as all the other kids in his class have a daddy “.
