Aiden Waller

[OldBlueLady]

As already mentioned elsewhere, Aiden's family will be attending as our guests at Saturday's home game.

Please join in with this and share it with anyone else who is going.

 

[shrimperjon]

Truely tragic. As a father of two i cant imagine what his poor parents are going through. Lets hope everyone joins in with this. hopefully the club will make some announcement as well as not all people will see this or on other socials

 

[bluesfansince1952]

My condolences. An impossibly sad situation where all words or phrases are inadequate.

 

[Evening Echo]

Blues fans are being urged to hold a minutes applause in memory of a 15-year-old from Benfleet who tragically lost his courageous fight with cancer last week

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Help with Echo links

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Tribute - Aiden Waller (Image: Alan Stanford/Focus Images/Sarah Waller)

By Cameron Hill. Trainee Reporter.

Blues fans are being urged to come together and hold a minutes applause in memory of a 15-year-old from Benfleet who tragically lost his courageous fight with cancer.

The family of Aiden Waller are set to be guests of honour at Saturday’s Blues game and a minutes applause will be held in the 15th minute to celebrate his life.

Aiden bravely battled cancer for three years, first as the aggressive bone cancer osteosarcoma which required the loss of part of his leg, before it spread to his lungs last year and then to his brain in January.

Tribute - Aiden and Ryan Reynolds (Image: Aiden Waller)

Prior to his death, Aiden had been invited to attend the game and his mum Sarah has confirmed she will attend with his dad, Rob, as it is "what Aiden would have wanted".

She said: “We were asked to attend and told a one-minute applause would take place from the fans during the game.

“Aiden would not have wanted any of us wallowing in the dark, he was always living life to the fullest and if we didn’t follow that it would be against everything he believed in.

“He would want us doing all the fun things, he was meant to do the Pokémon championships, and I will still be going, I will register him and take a photo of his name as he was so forward looking.

“He was always carrying on.”

Brave - Aiden Waller (Image: Aiden Waller)

She added that Aiden was a season-ticket holder for Southend United before Covid and the team meaning a lot to him.

Since his death, there has been an outpouring of sadness across south Essex.

Last week, A-list actor and owner of Wrexham AFC even paid tribute to Aiden after inviting him to a match back in 2022.

Sarah said: “I was always keeping Ryan up to date, he really liked Aiden and he was always allowed into the directors box at Wrexham, we went twice and he would often send a message to give him a boost.

“It was so genuine from them, and the flood of messages were hard to read.”

The youngster was initially diagnosed in 2022 with Osterosarcoma.

 

[OldBlueLady]

This is genuinely lovely on FB:

 

[Westy]

RIP young man !

 

[south247]

Thought that was a great touch today; stopping play and letting crowd and players pay their respects.

 

[Supershrimper]

Thought that was a great touch today; stopping play and letting crowd and players pay their respects.

Did wonder if the foul was prearranged. Happened bang on 15 minutes. Fair play to the ref as he held up thd play for the full minute.

Also nice to see the scoreboard flash up with the tribute as well

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Superbly respected, including the Rochdale fans

 

[OldBlueLady]

Absolutely amazing stuff, knew the Club had something planned but wasn't quite expecting that.

Don't think I can remember a match fully stopping like that. Gave me goosebumps. Thoughts are with the family as they prepare for his funeral tomorrow.

 

[Hawkwell Blue]

It was very well done and rightfully respected but I was surprised the game was stopped. Is this a new directive? Bigger teams will suffer more losses like Aiden so not sure how that would work for them. The list of names we’d lost in 2023 shown on our scoreboard on Boxing Day highlights this for a small club like ours.

Watching the EFL highlights this morning it looks like Coventry scored during a minutes applause, similarly on 15 minutes which I assume was for 15 year old Harvey Willgoose. Shows how sensitive these situations are. I lost my daughter when she too was 15 so I found yesterday’s acknowledgment of Aiden’s passing very moving.

 

[OldBlueLady]

It was very well done and rightfully respected but I was surprised the game was stopped. Is this a new directive? Bigger teams will suffer more losses like Aiden so not sure how that would work for them. The list of names we’d lost in 2023 shown on our scoreboard on Boxing Day highlights this for a small club like ours.

Watching the EFL highlights this morning it looks like Coventry scored during a minutes applause, similarly on 15 minutes which I assume was for 15 year old Harvey Willgoose. Shows how sensitive these situations are. I lost my daughter when she too was 15 so I found yesterday’s acknowledgment of Aiden’s passing very moving.

I think it was kind of an exceptional case. Aiden, and his family, had been due to be the Shrimpers Trust's guests under our social inclusion program at this match, so, his passing so shortly before it, and the fact his parents and family still wanted to attend in his memory, as he would have wished, was what prompted it. It was indeed, very moving.