The parents of the late Stuart Mangan hope that money raised for his rehabilitation from a paralysing rugby injury can now help others with spinal damage
A LEGACY of goodwill and generosity is testament to the character of Stuart Mangan. When, in April 2008, a routine rugby tackle left him paralysed from the neck down and unable to breathe without the aid of a ventilator, his loved ones grouped together and established a trust to help pay for his huge annual medical costs.
By the time Stuart’s life was suddenly cut short last August, the Stuart Mangan Trust had raised more than €1.5 million through a public appeal, fundraising, social and sports events, and the generosity and support of his home-town community in Fermoy, Co Cork. Since Stuart’s death, the trust has ceased accepting donations and its trustees are currently “selecting the organisations and charities to donate the money to”, according to Stuart’s father, Brian Mangan.
None of the Mangan family members is on the board of trustees because the family wanted to maintain the independence of the trust, which had the sole function “of paying for any of Stuart’s necessary medical costs”.
The board of trustees is made up of four people that were recommended to the family by close friends. Each was selected because of their experience on the boards of similar charity organisations in Ireland and the UK. Brian says that all decisions relating to the distribution of money have always been left to the trustees.
“The family made the decision to refrain from entering the board of directors because we have no experience of being involved in these kinds of organisations,” he says. “We wanted to leave the financial aspect to those who knew best.”
Brian and his wife, Una, have been consulted about their preferred choice of benefactors for the money, which has not been distributed anywhere thus far. Brian says the trust will “hopefully donate the funds before the end of the year . . . The family would like to donate the money to charities that help people who have suffered severe rugby injuries and also organisations that help people who have suffered spinal damage.”
The trust has held two events since Stuart passed away, but the money raised was for the IRFU Charitable Trust, which helps people who have suffered serious injury through rugby.
A BBC television documentary, aired on RTÉ last Monday, showed Stuart’s rehabilitation after leaving a specialist spinal-injury rehabilitation unit in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London. He spent eight months in the hospital and his injury was described by a senior consultant in the unit as one of the worst she had seen in her career.
His love of life and enduring spirit for fun shone through in the documentary, which was filmed as part of a series the BBC commissioned on people facing up to difficult challenges in life.
“The producer started filming when Stuart came out of hospital and she got to know him very well,” says Brian Mangan. “She filmed him for two days a week until his death and collected over 40 hours of footage.”
Stuart lived as independently as possible in his own apartment in west London. He even mastered a voice-recognition computer system to maintain contact with the outside world and keep up correspondence with his wide network of friends.
“Stuart had an incredible resilience and always saw the positive side in everything,” Brian says. “He never gave up, and mastering the voice recognition system typified how much he wanted to continue achieving new things.
Stuart developed respiratory problems a week after learning to steer a new wheelchair using a device controlled from his mouth. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards of his illness, aged just 25 years old.
“Una and I are regularly asked what did we learned from Stuart’s death,” says Brian. “We always answer that we have learned about so many good people that are willing to help and make an effort for the good of others.”
