A Minster family is appealing for help to celebrate the life of Ralph Mattison-Evans who passed away at the age of 12 this week.
Foreland Fields student Ralph was born with a condition called nemaline myopathy, which involves muscle weakness, hypoventilation, swallowing dysfunction, and impaired speech ability.
Ralph’s family were told that he wouldn’t survive and at four months old his mum Sarah brought him home to pass away surrounded by his family.
But Ralph defied the odds and proved the doctors wrong. He lived his life up to the age of 12, passing away on January 21 just a few months short of making it into his teenage years.
Ralph, who was the middle of six siblings, survived to one of the oldest ages known for youngsters with nemaline myopathy.
Sister Holly-Ann, 20, said: “He was such a happy boy, and he made his whole family smile.I want Ralph to have the best send off he could possibly have, so we can all remember how much joy he brought to the world and any donations would be greatly appreciated.
“He loved Lazy Town and we would love to incorporate that into his funeral somehow so if anybody has any ideas on how we can do so we would really appreciate it.
“There is no rush for donations just yet and this is only if people feel like they’d like to help us make his last day magical. There’s is no target as it’s very early days still and we haven’t spoken about all the funeral costs just yet. We would like Ralph to be escorted by horse and carriage as he would never have been able to do so alive and he loved animals.
“We are also considering a bio memorial tree which is designed to turn a person’s ashes into a tree (or other plant). In this way, death becomes a transformation and return to life by means of nature. Thank you to everyone out there that has supported and helped Ralph along the way, we will forever be grateful.”
Ralph’s family say they want the service to be a celebration of the life of a wonderful boy.