Cork woman: Fundraiser to remember my happy brother Damien who drowned in Oz

DAMIEN Lucey was full of mischief and his laugh was infectious.

“He was well known by his laugh!” says Damien’s sister Eleanor. “Looking at photographs of him, you can almost hear his laugh!”

Damien left home for Perth in Australia 14 years ago. He will never come home.

“Damien tragically lost his life while swimming in Honeycombe Bay on January 8 this year,” Eleanor says. “His body was never recovered.”

Now his family and friends want to repay the kindness shown to them in recent months by raising funds for two major charities that help those who face similar heartbreak here in Ireland - Mallow Search and Rescue and the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, which operates internationally to help families bring the remains of their loved ones home after a tragedy abroad.

Damien’s family and friends are to run in the Cork City Marathon on June 2.

“There already has been a great response,” says Eleanor, who is mum to Alex and Cillian. The runners will compete in the half marathon or 10km event. Over €1,000 of the €5,000 target has already been raised.

Damien, an electrician by trade and a soccer fan, had lived in Australia for over a decade but maintained close links with home.

In the aftermath of his death, the community in Ballincollig raised funds to help family members travel to Perth while the search for his body was ongoing, with thousands of small donations pouring into a GoFundMe set up to aid the Lucey family in their hour of need.

How did Eleanor find out the devastating news that her brother had drowned 150,000km from home?

“I had a visit from the guards at my workplace,” says Eleanor. “They had received information from Interpol. I was relieved that the guards called to me and not to our mother, who was at home by herself.

“I rang my husband to come to me. My heart was in my mouth, and I went into a haze.”

Damien, 42, went into an unpredictable stretch of water.

“He was in the wrong place,” says Eleanor. “There was a riptide, and he couldn’t fight the current, it was so strong in summer. He was a strong swimmer.

The sea can be unpredictable and cruel.

“The tide can easily turn,” says Eleanor. 

It can be strong and then become calm. We saw this when we visited Honeycombe Beach after Damien's disappearance.

“We know from witnesses that Damien called out, the emergency rescue services arrived, and the search started. Damien was never found to this day.

“But we know he was gone very quickly, which is a kind of blessing.”

There are other blessings.

“We appreciated the beauty of Honeycombe Beach and its surroundings,” says Eleanor. “It is a joy to behold.

“You come up the road and over the hill is the blue ocean. It is stunning and a beautiful joyful resting place for Damien.

“For two weeks, Damien's friends, along with ourselves, searched for him every day, thinking that he may have been caught up in rocks or seaweed.”

There was no joy.

“Mam was devastated,” says Eleanor. “She wanted closure.”

June 2 will be poignant day.

“It is Damien's birthday, and the marathon is taking place that day too.”

Eleanor says the two charities to benefit - The Kevin Ball Repatriation Trust and the Mallow Search and Rescue - “are so valuable in bringing loved ones home. The funds raised will help aid the purchase of more equipment, and therefore more means to bring loved ones home.”

Damien is always remembered.

“Because he was not at home, but so far away, it is a hard process to grasp,” says Eleanor. “In my mind, Damien is still over there doing his thing.”

I can hear his laugh. He was my fun, happy brother. He loved to travel; he got to do that. He may have had a short life, but he had a full life.

She adds: “We’ll remember him on his birthday, and we’ll acknowledge the people who help bring loved ones home as well.

“Most of us are doing 10km on June 2 with a few doing the half marathon.”

Damien's mother Frankie will remember her beloved son too.

“Mam will walk at the end of the route and so will our neighbours,” says Eleanor. “One of our neighbours are printing the t-shirts for us.”

The family will remember the boy with the infectious laugh.

“We’ll celebrate Damien on that day,” says Eleanor.

And she’ll hear her brother laugh.

The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust aims to alleviate the financial hardship of bereaved families repatriating the bodies of loved ones who have died abroad in suddenly or tragic circumstances back to Ireland.

It was founded following the death of Kevin Bell, 26, in New York.

Phone: 028-30833311

https://kbrtrust.com/

Mallow Search and Rescue aims to provide a year-round rescue, search and recovery service across the country to return the missing person to their families.

Mallow Search and Rescue has been in operation 30 years as a voluntary organisation fully funded through charitable donations.

Phone: 087-9609885

Information on services provided: https://www.missing.ie/cork-city-sar/