Ben Morse (Morsey, TheGunner) was born on 12th March 1981 and met his untimely departure on 1st May 2017 at the age of 36. Morsey had many passions, but his top three were music, sport and people. He loved life and if he could combine his top three passions together, he was truly in his element. Morsey did not see age, gender, race, colour or sexual orientation as a barrier to conversation and having fun.

With Morsey’s passions in mind, and near to the first anniversary of his departure a “BenFest” event was organised on 6th May 2018 at The Rose & Crown public house, Halesowen. Family, friends and the wider community were invited to come along to the free of charge event and celebrate Morsey’s life. The event was organised by volunteers with the valuable help of the staff at The Rose & Crown. There was an open mic slot, live bands, face painting & a bouncy castle for the children together with food and beverages. A tombola was set up with donated items for prizes with funds being raised to be donated to SAMM (see below). A representative from SAMM also attended.

The event was a great success and with this in mind ideas started to form around making the event bigger and better next year. Added to this, many people have shown a desire to fund raise in Morsey’s memory so that Charities such as SAMM (Support After Murder & Manslaughter – registered Charity number 1000598) could benefit by receiving valuable donations to continue their good work when crimes of this nature appear to be increasing and funding is either competitive or very difficult to raise. SAMM have been and continue to be of great support to Morsey’s family and friends during a very emotional, confusing and heartbreaking time.

Initial thoughts around the Ben Morse Foundation began soon after as it was identified that planned events together with any public money raised needed to be controlled and monitored within UK legal guidelines and with openness and transparency. On 4th June 2018 members of the public were invited to put their names forward to sit on and/or vote for those they would like to sit on the Foundation Committee. The voting was anonymous and undertaken through Survey Monkey. Voting was closed on 5th June 2018 and the Foundation committee was officially formed.

Behind the scenes a huge amount of work is being done to set up the Foundation. A delivery plan for 2018/19 has been drafted and there are a number of priorities the Foundation wish to achieve during its first year - two of which I believe I can help with.

One priority is to gain registered charity status and to do this the Foundation must raise a minimum of £5k to begin the application process. Lots of fundraising has already taken place and the Foundation has raised approximately £2k so far. This is a brilliant result but more funds are needed.

A further priority is to donate a minimum of £5k during it's first year to its nominated Charity. This year the nominated charity is SAMM (Support After Murder & Manslaughter charity number 1000598).

On 11th August 2018 @ approximately 10am I will be doing a 10,000 feet tandem skydive at a venue in Whitchurch. I will be financing this challenge myself and all funds raised will go direct to the Foundation. I really hope you can help me achieve my goal. Every donation counts, no matter what the value. A video and photos of the event will be made available. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Come on people, lets do this for Morsey and his family.

#MORSECODEFORLOVE