Bereaved Folkestone Dad opens indoor football pitch to teach road safety

KentOnline / KMTV

William Brown Senior opened pitch seven with the hope of using the beautiful game his son loved to engage young people on Kent's south coast. Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.

Transcript

00:00Indoor football is nothing new, but here at the Will Brown Jr Cafe, there's a slightly different goal in mind.

00:09Back in December of 2023, seven-year-old William Brown was killed by a car when collecting a football from the busy road outside his house.

00:19People love football and this was Will's kit, which has obviously got great memories for me.

00:25Now his father wants to continue his son's legacy and keep children here in Folkestone on the side when it comes to traffic.

00:34And, you know, it's a positive message. Although it's a sad thing that's happened, you know, we've turned it around into a positive thing.

00:40This is what Will would have wanted, you know. I felt Will say to me, basically, when the incident happened, you know,

00:46Dad, you've got to tell him about the roads, you know, because I don't feel that, you know, if he had more education on the roads,

00:54he wouldn't have been in that road getting a ball.

00:56William Brown Sr. says he's working with local schools on road safety seminars,

01:03turning his son's love of the beautiful game into life-saving knowledge off the pitch.

01:09Spoken to Will's school at St Innsworth's, so they'll be the first to come in.

01:14So what we're going to be doing is there's going to be a projector on this wall that's going to run a road safety video.

01:21So we can get the children in, you know, a bit like in the school hall, you know, all watching the road safety

01:32and obviously learning, you know, what happened to Will and, more importantly, how it won't happen to them.

01:38William Brown Jr.'s memory continues to live on in his hometown.

01:42But while some youngsters may just be here for the crossbar challenge,

01:47they could end up learning a thing or two about the challenges of safely crossing the road.

01:54Oliver, Leeds of Sax for KNTV in Folkestone.

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