Our Inspiration
Following his untimely death due to a paragliding accident on New Year’s
Eve 2008 David Mather’s family and friends wanted to establish a fitting
and lasting legacy that reflected his love of travel and his desire to
help others.
David attended the
Teddington School between 1991 and 1996,
and then went onto to
Esher College from 1996 to1998 before gaining a degree in Social Policy and Criminology at the
University of Hull. He worked for
Brent Council until he went travelling in 2008. Apart from being a keen traveller he
was a rugby enthusiast and Arsenal supporter (nobody is perfect!). The
accident was in Salta, in north Argentina, where he was visiting his brother
Gareth who lives with his wife Irma and daughter Sofia (who was born shortly
after the accident). The accident was widely reported in the
National press.
The David Mather Foundation has been established as a memorial trust with
the objective of helping young people in Argentina to realise their full
potential, who would otherwise be unable to do so being severely disadvantaged
by their background and circumstances,
Click here to see what we hope to achieve in our first year.
David's parents explain the background and rationale:
Our son, David, loved the amazing sights, sounds and colours of the fantastic
places he was able to visit, but it was the peoples he met on his numerous
travels around the world, that made the greatest impact. David often talked
of the families struggling to make a living, of young people forced to
scrabble about on rubbish tips, and of the injustice in the world. Shocked
by the effects of poverty, he had recently applied to join an organisation
to help address these problems saying
"I am lucky enough to be in a position where I have both enough time
and sufficient resources to travel in the region of Central and South America
for around a year. I am very aware of the gulf in resources and living
standards in the area and that many people need a bit of help and support.
With this in mind, I just want to do a little during my time here to give
a bit back"
David had visited Salta, the
provincial capital of North West Argentina, to see his brother, Gareth, on one
previous occasion and he had been drawn in by the welcoming people he had met and the beauty of the area. He was
also, however, amazed at the third world lifestyles of many of the indigenous
people and felt strongly that Gareth’s travel company had done small things in
terms of the local economy, but that these had made a huge difference to the
lives involved.
It is Salta, where he was killed in
a paragliding accident on 31 December
2008, that we are focusing our efforts to support latent talent of young people
in David’s memory. He believed that making a difference was important and that
the potential to make a difference in South America was far greater than in
Europe. It is from these strongly held beliefs of David, as well as through
discussion with Gareth and his Argentinean wife, Irma, and with David’s many UK
based friends, we decided to establish The David Mather Foundation
In David’s words:
I am one of the lucky ones. I come from a comfortable background and have
never wanted for much in life, nevermind the basics such as food, shelter
and a loving family. It never fails to amaze me that those people who are
really up against it are often those with thebiggest smiles on their faces.”
Thank you.
Ian and Ceri Mather
