 testing one as is the back story because Chris Doherty died in September of last year after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in Oma with his wife Laura and his two young sons Archie and Max in the house at the time he was airlifted to ICU but sadly passed away a week later and before his passing he was working on a children's book called Donovan the business sloth makes it home for bedtime stories and it's on the theme of fatherhood so afterwards his family decided that they were going to finish the project and he'd been working on it with his cousin Alex Alex was bringing the story to life through illustrations but his family sort of picked up the mantle and in memory of Chris they have finished the book so I'm glad it that his wife Laura and dad Nigel join us now and join us online as well if you're looking on Facebook or YouTube good afternoon to you both good afternoon John Laura I'll start with you and the obviously the the saddest part of all this is Chris's untimely death and and the trauma that they came with it and and I can only imagine you know your your head was all over the place in the immediate aftermath but but eventually you decided seeing as this was a labor labor of love that you're going to finish it yeah and Chris had been working really hard on on the book and a lot of it creatively was was already there before and before this happened and actually I mean it was it was probably really not too long after he passed that we we when I think we we knew that we wanted to finish it there wasn't too much debate and and you know as the family came together quite a lot and in that in those kind of first couple of months and it became something that we we knew we wanted to to finish and hopefully see the book in print and do what he wasn't able to Nigel Chris worked in IT and when did you first hear that he was actually working on the children's book well he actually probably about a year before he actually passed me came up to us and he said I'm writing a book so whenever I asked him what's the title he said one of them the business law gets home and time for bedtime stories and I said title is too long really shorten it so this was a bit of a laugh really at the time you know and then his mom said I don't like the colour of the front and he said hang on we haven't even opened the book yet haven't heard what it's about so it was a bit of a laugh at the time but an actual fact it was a passion that he had to do this and really it's a story very much about his own personal life at that time so it's very very true to heart and it's actually true to a lot of parents that can see themselves in the same situation if they read the book they would see themselves well that's me as well you know that's the situation I'm in trying to dash home to do to do stories and to spend more time with the kids basically so people spend too long commuting and not enough time with the kids you know yeah sadly Chris's time with the kids was cut short and it's poignant Laura I suppose on a number of the different levels but first and foremost because he was he was he was just a great dad wasn't he and and did spend a lot of time with his kids and wanted to spend more time in fact had had got a job closer to home so he could be around for the school role and stuff yeah and he was absolutely devoted to both of his boys as Archie was too when he passed and Max was four months old and and yeah I mean every spare minute he got um he spent um with with the boys and and doing anything he could for them um so yeah he was he was very happy to have found a job that meant that you know he wouldn't have to be going away on any business trips um and that he could be around um the school pickups and and all of all of that so I far along was he with the book was it almost complete was it halfway through at what stage was it I'd say it was creatively it was 99% there I mean there were probably only a couple of very very minor tweaks um and really the job that we've done is is kind of compiling what he had into the book format and and just final edits a little bit of debate about the color on the cover page and and things but everything everything was was there um you know we we haven't had to kind of create anything new if that makes sense Nigel he was working with a cousin on the illustrations so I'm sure that that helped the the processor help to speed the process a lot well yes and no um it was very close to Alex but Alex lived in France oh everything was done by email and uh through computers etc you know Alex is just qualified as a an architect so and but he's a brilliant illustrator and he really did bring the pictures to life the choice of colors etc too are quite uh good um because there's nothing to startling their calming effect of the colors so it's very very good now that's back to me okay and and now the book the book has been finished now is that that correct yeah and is out it is it is out it's available to to buy on amazon in paperback and um we're hoping that fairly soon we'll have a hard batch version as well brilliant and and Laura did it take him long to to well it didn't finish the book but did it take him long to to get to the the stage where it was at and it took a lot of work um I mean Chris was creative and um he was very um no he used to have some brilliant ideas and a great imagination and um so that that side of it I think came came quite easy easy in a way um but the coordination Nigel was saying there about Alex being in France um so this is during lockdown and he had to you know kind of have a lot of different video chats um he used to set up little focus groups with his friends that had kids and say what do you think of this what do you think of that um so a lot of of thought and consideration went into it as he kind of you know developed it and a lot of ours work as well yeah so Nigel what you know I'm sure you've read the story uh back to front and been through it numerous times yeah and you know what what was your first impressions and and what what do you think of the story and the finished book my first impression was um it was a great idea unfortunately whenever um Christopher passed it took on a totally different meaning and uh for me personally it makes the end very sad uh but an actual fact the end of the book is not sad at all the end of the book is a very happy ending it's just the circumstances that we are and make the answers quite sad of course of course absolutely yeah well yeah it's great that the book you know it has been finished in its memory and it is now out as as another chris would have wanted and you've decided to um given the given what happened to chris you've decided to admit half of the proceeds to charity yeah um we we decided that we we wanted to take this opportunity to give something back um and also you know to a charity that would be heavily involved in research into heart disease and and heart health so we're glad to be able to do that okay brilliant so it's available on amazon and hopefully there'll be a heart bank version out and will that be out in time for christmas uh certainly um we're very much hoping that'll be out i'd say within the next month um so in time for christmas and available toward for amazon as well okay brilliant and two sorry two uh chris chris's friends chris was airlifted to elton galvin by our ambulance and uh two of his friends uh mike and Gavin walked from mason head to malin head uh beginning of june to sort of the end of july and they raised over eight and a half thousand pounds which was split between vasculitis and eye and uh air ambulance and at the time uh we said uh chris to the funeral to donations to air ambulance and uh i think we all told we've probably raised about eight thousand pounds for air ambulance right you know so chris was also an organ donor so even at the end of life he was giving you know he's a very thoughtful very very thoughtful person you know well the credit that he wrote this and we're really pleased to see it and i can imagine yeah and uh it's great that it it is finally completed and it is out now and it's in his memory the book is called donovan the business sloth makes it home for bedtime stories and nagel regardless of the long title it sounds like a great story laura and natal thank you both very much for joining us appreciate it thank you john thank you very much john thank you bye bye