Students pay tribute to Tom

Tom Clark died in February this year aged just 47. The father-of-three died from motor neurone disease in the final year of his Social Work course at the University of Teesside. However, family and friends will remember Tom at today’s 1.15pm graduation at Middlesbrough Town Hall. Tom has been awarded a posthumous Diploma in Higher Education, which will be collected on the stage by his wife, Bridget.

Tom was born in Lanark but moved to Billingham when he was ten and later moved to Scarborough. He first worked for the Inland Revenue, where he met Bridget. Tom changed roles, working first as a Building Society Manager and finally as a group leader in a children’s residential home. He and Bridget had three children, Jane (21), Tom (19) and Matt (16). Tom’s mother Elizabeth still lives in Billingham, where Tom stayed during his part-time course. She will also attend today’s ceremony.

Tom was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in August 2004. Donna Foster, 38, from Middlesbrough, was one of Tom’s many friends on the course. She said: “Tom will be very much in our thoughts today; we’ll be having a drink for him. He was so determined to finish the course and get some form of recognition. Tom was a genuine caring man with a sense of decency. He put his family above anything else; he used to say ‘I’m doing this for my family as well as me’.”

Course tutor Wade Tovey added: “All staff and students respected and admired Tom from the outset and we all very much wanted him to succeed. Tom had virtually completed the course when he tragically died. We are all privileged to have known Tom and are all so pleased that his wife will come to collect this award.”

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