Parachute jumper Emma Brown is now daring to walk on an aeroplane wing in flight thousands of feet above the earth in memory of her brother Barty who was stabbed to death in Bethnal Green four years ago.
She’s fundraising in the sky over Upminster on September 12 in aid of the Air Ambulance helicopter at the Royal London Hospital which tried to save Barty’s life.
Russel Brown, known fondly as Barty to his family, was attacked on the Nelsons Garden Estate off Hackney Road in 2016.
The 26-year-old from Bow died 24 hours after being air-lifted to the Royal London where he had recently registered as a donor to help save his sick aunt and was actually due to undergo surgery there to remove a kidney.
Emma makes her daring assent from Upminster’s Damyns Hall Aerodrome.
The family have opened a Just Giving fundraising page in Barty’s memory for the air ambulance charity.
“I will be strapped onto the top of the plane,” Emma assures you. “No parachute this time!”
She has been raising funds for the air ambulance charity every year on the anniversary of Barty’s passing, making £2,200 in 2018 with a skydive and £1,250 last year with a Spartan race. Her wing walk this time has attracted £1,400 so far.
“Losing Barty devastated us,” Emma recalls. “As you can imagine, our lives will never be the same again as a family.
“A piece of us missing. I feel like I have lost the other half to my heart.
“We grieve daily, but some days are worst than others.
“but the fact that Barty has not received justice only adds to the pain.”
The family pledge never to let his face or what happened to him be forgotten, knowing that whoever was responsible is still out there.
Two brothers were acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey in 2017 which led to friends and family holding a vigil outside the court after the trial calling for “justice”.
Former neighbour and family friend Patricia Stafford, who joined the vigil, said at the time: “Russell was the most loving, caring person who was always full of life, always smiling, always had time to stop and talk.”
Russell passed away on September 12, 2016, at the same hospital where he was due to undergo surgery to remove a kidney that he was donating to his desperately-ill aunt waiting for a transplant.
But his life-saving gesture was shattered when a fight broke out at a party at a friend’s second-floor maisonette in Zander Court, on the Nelson Gardens estate, which spilled out onto the courtyard.
The air-ambulance paramedics landed in Warner Green close by to air-lift Russell to the hospital, but he died 24 hours later.
Wellwishers are being invited by the family to join their Just Giving appeal for the air ambulance in memory of Russell Brown.
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