A year on from the death of much-loved boxer, photographer and family man Hugh Russell, a void remains that will likely never be filled.
“It’s just hard to believe it’s a year this Sunday, I’m still waiting on him walking through the door. It’s hard to get your head around.”
The words of Hugh Russell Jr, beloved son of the Olympic bronze medallist and award-winning Irish News photographer who died following a cancer battle last year aged 63.
The great and the good of Belfast’s boxing and media world were among the crowds of mourners at an emotional funeral service for Hugh in St Patrick’s Church on Donegall Street, yards away from his old workplace and former home of this newspaper.
This Sunday October 13, Hugh’s close knit family circle will gather to celebrate his first anniversary mass in that same church.
Now with his own family, Hugh Jr said his father is never too far away from his thoughts - and he’s not alone in that regard.
“It was only last week I was bringing the kids out and a guy approached me who I had never met in my life, tapped me on the shoulder and said he had always hoped to bump into me,” he says.
“He said my dad always stopped to talk to him about the kids’ boxing clubs and football clubs. He said there wasn’t a day went past when he wouldn’t stop with him for a chat.
“That’s just the character dad was, you talk to his training partners from when he was nine or ten years and they’ll tell you that my dad never changed a bit.
“This is the last of the firsts, we’ve all had our first birthdays and first Father’s Day and Christmas and things like that.
“It’s going to be a hard day obviously and it doesn’t get any easier.”
The Russell family have organised a number of events in memory of Hugh in the 12 months since his passing, raising thousands of pounds for cancer charities in the process.
“He was very well known throughout the community whether it was through the boxing or photography or whatever he was involved in.
“We’re going to be running an annual golf day for MacMillan Cancer Support, we raised £8,700 in the first event a few weeks ago so we are over the moon for that.
“The camera club he was involved with now have a trophy dedicated in his honour, so he is still very well thought of and his memory very much lives on.”
Noel Doran, editor of The Irish News from 1999 until he stood down earlier this year, said the organisation would never be the same without its esteemed photographer, while also paying tribute to two colleagues who passed in the weeks following Hugh’s death.
“When he first came quietly into my office, and told me about his diagnosis, in his typically matter of fact and low-key way, I was devastated, but still felt that, if anyone could recover from cancer, it was Hugh,” Mr Doran said.
“Unfortunately, the condition was too aggressive and too advanced, and our champion knew far too quickly that this was the only fight he could not win.
“In our final telephone conversation, he told me he was determined to attend The Irish News GAA All Stars a couple of days later at the Ulster Hall, where I had seen him secure his Lonsdale Belt 40 years earlier.
“He died on the morning of the event, but we ensured that the applause he so richly deserved still rang around the famous auditorium in the evening.
“It was hard to believe that two more wonderful and much-loved colleagues, Dawn Egan and Lorraine McCarthy, also passed away in the following weeks, and The Irish News can never be the same place without them. They were very special people, and my thoughts are with their families.”
