William Owen Beynon 11.03.65 - 19.12.24

Bill’s Bus -

Sadly on the 19th of December my amazing dad William Owen Beynon (Bill to those who knew him) peacefully passed away at Morriston Hospital.

Dad had been suffering with numerous neurological and endocrinologic conditions for over 10 years unfortunately his conditions were progressive and eventually led to events that framed his passing.

Dads life was full however short with him passing at 59 years old, but in those 59 years he really did jam a full packed life in. Starting at an early age Dad joined the marines at 17 and served for a further 7 years before travelling to South Africa with the love of his life and newly wedded wife Sandra, my mum. On returning they had me and started a thriving outdoor pursuits business down the gower whilst Dad trained and trained to be the highest level he could achieve in most areas, caving, climbing, mountaineering, to name a few. In dads 30's he decided to go back to university and retrained to teach a degree in the outdoors down in trinity university in Carmarthen and also setting up his retirement plan of skydiving cameraman, he set out to start to learn this new skill. Jumping over 200 times before becoming too unwell to do the activities he so very much enjoyed.

In 2013 Dad started to become unwell, Mum quickly put things into place so they could do retirement plans early, they sold up their home in Swansea and bought a motorhome they named Dora the explorer as it was my daughters favourite tv show at the time and off they went to adventure around Europe. Dad and Mum were able to travel for a further 6 years before it became too difficult for dad to drive, they continued to go on long 6 week holidays around Spain and Portugal until finally in 2024 Dad became hospitalised for pretty much the entire year.

Now we are planning a funeral for this huge character in our lives and trying to ensure we do him the justice he deserves, we know he didn't want flowers and we know there are many deserving charity's that dad actively supported when he was alive however there was another cause that just seemed to fit dad so well.

I will try my best to keep a long story short but growing up my primary school had no school minibus, however dads business had two. Dad being the man he was and always my biggest cheerleader in life decided to offer his services and the bus to shuttle us and our teams around mainly to cross country or netball events. He continued to do this for me and the school until I left to go to comprehensive school. At present two of my three daughters attend Ysgol Tan y lan in Swansea and are currently fundraising to save their school minibus, this bus as you can imagine ensures the children get to go and experience trips that broaden their minds and wouldn't be possible if they had to constantly hire external transport at a huge cost. Dad was a big believer that there is more to education than the classroom and I know he would love to think he helped to keep that going for his own grandchildren and many more children to come.

We would love if it you could donate any amount to this cause and help keep the children adventuring on behalf of my dad, Bill Beynon.

*All funds raised will go directly to the school and although I had included their full total I am not expecting we can raise this full amount*

Many thanks, Samantha, Sandra and all the children at Tan Y Lan <3