OVER £11,000 has been raised to bring home a 26-year-old Islander who died unexpectedly in London last month.
After Nikolas De Moura passed away, his family friend Lua Flores set up an online fundraiser to “bring Nikolas home and to give him the best send off possible”.
“Although he lived in London, his home was Jersey, where his family are,” she explained. The fundraiser had surpassed £11,000 last night when this newspaper went to print.
Ms Flores paid tribute to the aspiring stand-up comedian Mr De Moura: “All he wanted to do in life was to make people laugh.
“He was an aspiring stand-up comedian who followed his dreams to London, where he found a job that he loved and friends who loved him.”
Leila De Moura paid tribute to her brother, calling him “the most empathetic comedian around”, with “so much love to give”.
Reflecting on some of her favourite memories of the pair growing up together in Jersey, Ms De Moura said she would watch Mr De Moura “play with his school friends, creating adventures”.
The playful spirit continued as Mr De Moura got older and became an uncle, when he would use a washing basket to carry his niece Annalia around, “creating echoes of contagious laughter in the home”.
Ms De Moura added: “Nikolas and I would go for drives, where he would sing at the top of his voice and we could laugh with joy at how freeing the sensation was.”
She also recalled how her brother brought joy to their parents, saying: “Nikolas would use his natural comedic qualities to make my mum and dad laugh in some of our hardest days.”
Ms De Moura described her brother’s death as an “unimaginable loss”, and she “cannot express enough” how grateful her family is for the donations so far.
She said: “In times of tragedy, community has really come around us and because of our community, his community, we get to bring my baby brother home and give him a send-off that’ll hopefully honour the beautiful man he was.
“It pains me to the deepest parts of my heart that my baby brother is no longer with us, but, truly, all the care, love, messages and support in the darkest time of my life have brought some comfort.
“Where there has been a tsunami of grief, there has been a tsunami of love. Love is what heals. I just wish he had felt this whilst he was still here.”
The fundraiser is aiming to raise between £15,000 and £20,000.
Ms De Moura explained: “After we raised enough for my brother’s repatriation and funeral, the dust settled and I realised what else was required.
“I want my mum and dad to not have to worry about money whilst they grieve this unexpected and tragic loss. I would like to allow them to travel to Madeira to scatter Nikolas’s ashes, and to create a memorial bench so a father can sit with his son in many years to come.”
You can donate to the fundraiser at https://gofund.me/da05e2456.
