Family complete book for late father and husband after he sadly passes at just 37

Laura Doherty and her husband Chris moved to Omagh in 2016 and were married in 2017.

They then had two sons, Archie and Max, who are now three years and one year old respectively. 

Chris was born and bred in Derry and has a lot of friends and family still living in the area. 

Tragedy hit the family in September of last year when sadly, Chris passed away very suddenly following a cardiac arrest at home at just 37 years old.

Chris was taken in the air ambulance to Altnagelvin Hospital where he was in ICU for a week before his life support had to be switched off and he then gave the gift of organ donation. 

Archie was only two years old and his younger brother Max was just four months old. 

Chris had always worked in IT and had just started a job locally working for Loughtec. 

Laura said he was looking forward to being based closer to home so he could be as involved in family life as possible.

"Our two boys really were the centre of his universe," Laura said. "He was always determined to get home in time to read them a bedtime story.

"Chris always had a creative side and during lockdown he had decided to write a children's book. He wrote the story based on his own love for getting home on time to read to the kids.

"He had never taken pen to paper and written a book before, it came out of his passion for reading to our eldest son Archie.

Chris' inspiration for the book was his experience of rushing home from work and his love for reading to his own boys

"He worked in collaboration with his cousin Alex Ferragu who brought the story to life through his illustrations."

Chris passed away just before the book was finished and Laura, alongside a few family members- including Chris' parents, Janice and Nigel, his sister Jude and Alex's parents, Alison and Laurent- worked together to get it ready to publish. 

Everyone pitched in their own ideas and skills to get the book to the point of publishing, the next step in the process that sadly Chris never got to complete.

Laura continued: "It is a touching story called ‘Donovan the Sloth Makes it Home for Bedtime Stories’ and tells the story of a busy father trying to overcome obstacles so he can enjoy stories with his son Archie.

"Chris put so much work into the book, he researched so much, setting up focus groups with his friends that have kids. He wanted to create something that parents and kids would love.

"Chris had pretty much finished writing the book, the creative aspect of it was complete and we didn't want to change anything.

"There have been a few minor edits but everything in the book is the way that he had it. We were determined to do it the way Chris wanted and to get it published, it is such a lovely legacy for the boys. 99.9 percent of the creative input for the book was Chris and Alex.

"I love the thought of it being something that other parents can read to their children. It was lovely finishing something that he had started."

Laura said it is a great relief to get the book to this stage and the whole process has been a massive learning curve, "There are so many different aspects to getting the book ready to publish and so many different decisions to be made. It is an ever growing thing.

"I had never done anything like this before in my life but the support has been so lovely and I am so proud we are here now and we've completed it.

"It was something to focus on, for all of us, after Chris passed and I feel like we have been working with him. We decided to release the news about the book on his birthday. It felt nice to feel like we were giving him something and focusing on him and his life you know.

"We really wanted to publish it on his birthday but it wasn't quite ready but we're at the stage now, it's ready to get out there.

"You could always be making small tweaks or be looking at different options to publish but then you just think, 'Chris was happy with this route and it makes a lot of sense,' so now we just want to share it. It is best to complete his plan."

Following Chris’s death there has been a lot of fundraising for the Air Ambulance and recently one of his best friends Mike and his friend Gavin trekked from Mizen Head to Malin Head to raise funds in memory of Chris and Mike’s sister Aisling who sadly passed away young in 2014 from Vasculitis.  

The family has decided that they too want to contribute to charity and have decided that half the proceeds from the book will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.

Laura continued: "We really hope we can raise some funds for the charity. We feel it would be really positive to give back to an area that supports heart health and research so maybe in the future less families will have to go through what we have gone through."

The book, ‘Donovan the Sloth Makes it Home for Bedtime Stories,' will be available on Amazon within the next two weeks, approval dependent. 

Laura added: "It was always a lovely book with a lot of meaning, but now in the context of Chris having passed, it just takes on another meaning. 

"There is another aspect of it now that none of us ever wanted it to have but it is a message to share.

"You never know, one day, one of the boys might want to write a sequel."