Grieving dad does school run in costume in memory of wife who died at Irish wedding - now other parents join in
by Adam Dutton · Irish MirrorA grieving dad has been doing the school run each day dressed in wacky Christmas costumes in memory of his late wife - and other parents are now joining in.
Niall O'Connor, 43, has dressed up as the Grinch, a Christmas pudding, a penguin, an elf, a turkey and Santa to drop his three children off at primary school.
The dad-of-three decided to spread festive cheer and raise money for charity in honour of his beloved wife Kirsty who died two years ago.
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The 41-year-old tragically suffered a cardiac arrest in front of Niall while they were at a wedding in Ireland in March 2022. Niall, from Wolverhampton, gave up his job as a chef to look after the couple's children Robyn, seven, Darcie, six and Sonny, four.
Two Christmases ago he decided to bring smiles to the faces of children and parents by dressing up in a different costume every day in December. He did the same last year by dressing up as numerous hit characters and he's now got other parents joining in the heartwarming tradition.
The group of mums and dads have been donning festive fancy dress each day at St Nicholas CE First School in Wolverhampton in the run up to Christmas. Niall, 44, has been wearing the costumes in the 12 days leading up to the winter break at the end of this week to raise money for three good causes.
He said: "I decided at Christmas a couple of years back I wanted to cheer everyone up and myself if you like and its become a bit of a tradition. "Now the parents are joining in more and more and the teachers are a great support as always. It's about bringing joy to people. If we can make you smile, then we've achieved what we've done.
"We won't arrange to meet up, they'll just turn up in costumes which is hilarious, to see the kid's reaction is a joy. They're all my costumes, it's a sad hobby I have. I have about 20 costumes in total, I just keep adding to them. We've got a snowman, a penguin, a turkey, reindeer, elves, shepherds, a pudding, a Grinch costume, an inflatable reindeer and a Santa one too."
Niall has been raising money for the British Heart Foundation in honour of Kirsty and the Infant Cardiac Ward at Birmingham Children's Hospital. He added: "There's a boy who goes to the school who is in the ward there so we're raising money for the ward at the hospital that he's been at.
"We're raising money to help the school as well, as they're struggling. We've included their charity in the fundraising. It's great that we're raising money for charity but our focus is also bringing a smile to children's faces and trying to have a bit of fun.
"I get a lot of positive messages from people and that's the main aim here, make people smile.
"Even after the death of my wife the support has been fabulous. Without the school it wouldn't be possible." Niall has so far raised over £600 in memory of his late wife who died from a cardiac arrest without any known underlying health issues.
He added: "We were attending a wedding in Ireland and Kirsty had a heart attack that night. "We'd had a beautiful day, we'd had a lovely day. There was no underlying warning. It was her first time away from the kids which was sad.
"It cheers me up to see people happy. I like to cheer people up with their mental health, if it cheers me up it cheers someone else up.
"I'll do this every year until i can get away with it, until my kids stop me. This is about my wife. I want people to remember her."
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