T-Boys organise 24 hour gaming fundraiser to honour their best friend

The fundraiser will be streamed on the gaming platform Twitch starting at 8am on Saturday 20 February.

Volunteer RNLI lifeboat crews from St Agnes, St Ives, Newquay, Padstow and Sennen Cove joined other emergency services tasked with the search for Tyler on 12 November after he was washed off into the sea by a wave. Collectively, RNLI volunteers from these five stations spent 45 hours at sea but sadly Tyler has not been found.

Now, a group of Tyler’s friends will embark on a 24-hour gaming marathon to say thank you to the RNLI and other emergency services and to honour their friend who they met through working in hospitality and with whom gaming was a big part of their lives. The JustGiving fundraising page has already smashed the original £250 target and is currently at nearly £2,300

The T-Boys, a name they made up shortly after losing Tyler are, Connor Freeman, Charlton Cunningham, Mike Banks, Jake Rostill, Carl Hill and Jasper Knight. They describe Tyler, who was 24, as full of life. He loved the sea, whether it be in the sea surfing or fishing with friends. They will miss the late nights playing games and laughing till the early hours and as Tyler had mentioned on multiple occasions that he wished to do a charity live stream to raise some money. They decided while they never got to do one with him, they could do one for him and raise money for the lifesaving charity.

Conner Freeman who has known Tyler since secondary school says

‘We will play games online for 24 hours straight, we’ll have some great times, some amazing laughs and at the same time honouring our friend in the best way we can.’

Dickon Berriman, RNLI Area Lifesaving Manager says;

‘Tyler’s friends have shown such incredible resilience to organise such a positive and fun way to honour and remember their friend.

‘The charity is extremely grateful that through their grief his friends have chosen to fundraise for the RNLI. It was a huge collective effort by all our volunteers and search and rescue colleagues who worked tirelessly and showed remarkable commitment during the search. Everyone at the RNLI is heartbroken not to have been able to bring Tyler home, he was obviously a very loved friend and he’ll be missed by everyone he touched. I hope they have lots of fun on Saturday and remember what it was that connected them to Tyler.’

The group will live stream their 24-hour gameathon on the group’s Twitch.tv accounts @Khaotic_brutii @unspoken_bond and @TheFreemo playing the popular deception game Among Us, and Worms.

Donations can be made on their JustGiving page here

Note to editors

· Please find attached some images of the T-Boys with Tyler Westlake credit Connor Freeman/Charlton Cunningham

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