Tragic Gavin's friends gather to fight cluster headaches
Matt Meade • Published 8 Jun 2012 08:50
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VALLEYFIELD man Gavin Fern bravely endured unbearable pain before his untimely death last year.
The popular 30-year-old suffered cluster headaches, which affect just 0.1 per cent of the population.
Now friends and family will gather to highlight and raise funds for the Organisation for the Understanding of Cluster Headaches (Ouch UK) charity.
Gavin, who worked for Hewlett Packard, went missing from his Glasgow flat in November 2010. His body was found near Blairhall in February 2011.
He was the subject of a huge missing person's internet campaign after his disappearance which received celebrity support from Lorraine Kelly and Sarah Brown and saw the appeal reach more than two MILLION Twitter and Facebook accounts.
'A Night For Gav' is backed by mum Sandra who told the Press, "Until Gavin was diagnosed I had never heard of them.
"He complained of headaches for a while but thought it was due to looking at a (computer) screen at his work all the time.
"I remember he took ill at his work in March 2009 and was taken to hospital in Paisley.
"He was there for a week and had tests and scans which came back clear."
A GP and a doctor at the hospital had believed Gavin could be suffering from cluster headaches but it wasn't until a few months later when a neurologist confirmed the diagnosis.
Sandra added, "The event is to raise awareness for Ouch and help other people."
'A Night For Gav' is being organised by friend Ewan Carrigan, who said, "It was almost every day he was getting them and then they would die down.
"You get respite but you don't know for how long, so it was quite horrific.
"You would try and help him through it if you spoke to him about it but he held a lot of it to himself.
"I don't think we understood how bad they were until I Googled it and tried to understand it in terms of what he suffered.
"He would have some respite, then it would hit.
"So this event is about all his friends getting together to remember Gavin and to raise awareness and funds for the cluster headaches charity."
A Night For Gav takes place at East End Park on Saturday 16th June, at 7.30pm.
See www.facebook.com/anightforgav for ticket details.
For information on cluster headaches visit www.ouchuk.org.
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