I cant remember if it was DofE bronze or silver that he went off on a trip up the Mourne Mountains, The image of him standing beside his mothers car clad in his new rain gear, dwarfed by a huge rucksack that was stuffed with everything you could possibly need to survive in the wild, and I shuddered with dread as i thought 'he is just too young for this!' Two days later(that felt like a year) when we went to pick him up from the school carpark, he stepped out of the minibus in shorts and t shirt, swaggered over and tossed the rucksack into our car like it was empty and this time I thought, 'Either the rucksack has shrunk or Graeme has grown a foot!'.
We always encouraged confidence in our children, however, the DofE scheme did something we couldn't, it gave structure and something to aim for, with a certificate at the end to endorse his efforts, it also had us all working together, helping Graeme prepare for DofE activities. Graeme went on to complete a performing arts degree, performed in many plays with youth lyric at the waterfront Belfast, went into production of television and Film where he took various roles until he found his niche in the props department, he worked on many productions including, The Fall, Line of Duty, Game of Thrones, Dani's Castle, Millie Inbetween, The Lodge and Peaky Blinders. He somehow managed to fit in a number of hobbies as well such as Airsoft, canoeing and painting. He was incredibly sociable, loved to party and hang out with his friends. He loved movies and could go into detail on most, he loved star wars and sons of anarchy, he styled himself on one of the characters, even called his Jack Russell Opie and rode a similar motorcycle.
It has been very hard to know what to write here Graeme died on his motorcycle in June 2018, he was just 29 years, However in those 29 years Graeme lived more than most of us could in 100 years and a lot of this is down to The Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the confidence it gave him.
RIP Prince Philip