Littlehampton Cricket Club: Year-long campaign supports British Heart Foundation in memory of Littlehampton legend

Westley Campbell, known as Wes, was a keen sportsman and played for Littlehampton Cricket Club for 15 years, as well as being a footballer for several teams and a member of Littlehampton Golf Club.

Having already installed a memorial bench, the cricket club spent 2021 raising money for BHF to honour Wes and a cheque for £1,718 has now been presented to the charity.

Cricketer Ian Birbeck said: “Wes was a larger-than-life character loved by everyone that knew him. He always had a one-liner for any situation.

“As well as a talented cricketer, he was a friend to everyone at the club. If you met Wes for an afternoon, you remembered him for life. If you went out with Wes, he would always know someone, whether it was from cricket, golf or football.”

Wes died at Worthing Hospital on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, and more than 500 people attended his funeral.

Ian said: “His passing came as a shock to everyone who knew him. He was taken far too young. It is sometimes difficult to believe that he is not going to be playing again. The club is the poorer for his passing. He is not forgotten.”

The club ran a year-long fundraising campaign, including monthly raffles and a T20 match last May, with Wes’s former teammates playing in ‘Campbell 1’ shirts to remember their friend.

Ian said: “The number of people who attended events remembering Wes was a tribute to him. The fundraising would not have been possible without the generosity of his friends.

“I’d like to thank everyone who supported the events. It was a fitting tribute to someone who was a good friend to everyone at Littlehampton Cricket Club and beyond.”

Heart and circulatory diseases cause more than 160,000 deaths each year. The BHF funds life-saving research into all heart and circulatory diseases, including heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia and their risk factors, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

Will Ham, fundraising manager, said: “We’ve made immense progress since our inception in 1961, helping to reduce deaths from heart and circulatory diseases by half, but we must achieve so much more.

“Our life-saving research is powered by donations from the public and thanks to the generosity of the Littlehampton Cricket Club we will be able continue that vital work.

“We know we can prevent more people from developing heart and circulatory diseases, that’s why it’s critical we provide the funding so that scientists can discover the next important breakthrough.”