"Our much-loved son Luke died in his
sleep in January 2011, aged 27 years, after
suffering an epileptic seizure. Luke, from
Sheffield, was diagnosed with epilepsy when
he was 11 and up to the last couple of years
it was controlled with medication.
Luke lived life to the full and would never
let his epilepsy get in the way of anything
he wanted to do. Luke wasn't sporting but
for the last few years he ran the Manchester
10k and once completed the Great North Run
with excellent times. In May 2011, Luke's
friends and younger brothers Matthew and
Steven will run the Manchester 10k in Luke's
memory.
Luke went to Derby University to study
Theatre Studies and Creative Writing. Theatre
had been his passion since an early age
as well as devising scripts when he was
still too young to write and dictated them
instead. After graduating in 2004 Luke moved
to London to study Stage Management.
After doing a few short-term jobs, Luke got his first job in stage management as Assistant Stage Manager for the pantomime at Malvern Theatre; his time was cut short when he had a seizure resulting in a dislocated shoulder. Luke spent some time "resting" before obtaining the job of his dreams as an actor with Rhema Theatre Company in Manchester. Rhema is a Christian theatre company which complemented Luke's deep faith. For the first year he travelled the country in a van with two actresses performing Bible stories in schools, churches, and even a prison. Since then he was employed as Associate Director, directing the acting companies, writing scripts, liaising with schools, speaking and acting at conferences and many more responsibilities.
Luke's Rhema family talk about him being a "Legend" who was a child magnet, a great encourager, a wonderful friend, and had incredibly bendy legs, a wicked sense of humour, liked falling into dustbins and fighting with crocodiles! Luke's family take comfort in two things Luke said over his last Christmas and New Year. The first was that he had "the best job in the world" and the second was that he'd had "the best Christmas ever". Luke touched so many people during his short life; he relished the fact that in the pre-Christmas 2010 shows he reached 23,000 children having recorded "the voice of God" for all three companies.
Luke has left a hole in the lives of so
many people that will never be filled. We
have set up this memorial fund so that hopefully
other families won't have to suffer the
pain we are going through. Epilepsy is such
a complex condition that is so little understood
and has little media attention, so we hope
you will donate to this worthwhile cause."
Donations to Luke's memorial fund can be
made through this site using the link below
or via www.justgiving.com.
Heather and Paul Rotherham, February 2011
Donate to the
Luke Rotherham Memorial Fund
Epilepsy Research UK would like to thank
Heather and Paul Rotherham for their involvement
with us. Our memorial funds play an essential part
in funding the charity's research. This
year, they are supporting a project led
by Professor
Mark Richardson, which is exploring
the complex brain networks involved in temporal
lobe epilepsy.
