Sheffield daughter launches fundraiser in memory of ‘pillar of the community’ dad-of-six known as Tibbi
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Clive Sanderson, known locally as Tibbi Reuben, passed away on February 13 at the Northern General Hospital at the age of 54, just weeks after being told his brain cancer had travelled to his lungs.
Rastafarian Tibbi, of Pitsmoor, had worked a number of jobs during his life, and all of them had the Sheffield community as a focus. From a postman to a youth worker and as a teaching assistant and supply teacher, he was well known by many in the city.
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Hide AdHis youngest child, 20-year-old Cenya Sanderson has launched a GoFundMe page to place a bench and plaque in his name for all to remember Tibbi, a father of six and a “beloved friend to many”.
The fundraiser has already surpassed its £2,000 target, meaning the family will be looking at placing a larger memorial in a green space off Ellesmere Road, which he frequently visited.
Cenya, a politics and international relations student at Newcastle University, described her father as “a fountain of knowledge”, with an “infectious laugh”, and “energy like no other”. He was an eye-catching man who was always dressed in colour, and could often be heard before you saw him.
She said: “When I was younger, walking around with him and seeing the amount of people that knew him and the amount of respect that people had for him gave me my own confidence. He was always someone to look up to. You could see how many different people's lives he had touched.”
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Hide AdSadly his eldest son, Josiah Sanderson, a 28-year-old father-of-three passed away in February 2017 after getting into trouble in water while on a family holiday in Gambia.
Cenya said her father “never managed to heal his broken heart” after Josiah’s death, but in the months before his tragic diagnosis he had planned to go back into teaching.
She added: “Even though he definitely found things very difficult after my brother's passing, he still tried. He wasn't someone who would give up easily. Even after his diagnosis he was still talking about his plans for the future and things that he wanted to do.”