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The family of Jak Fada are getting set for their seventh Christmas Big Wrap event in honour of the ten-year-old who suddenly died in 2017.

Tony Fada, 35, has officially launched the ‘Wrap for Jak’ event for 2023 as he looks to make Christmas morning special for 204 disadvantaged children in South Tyneside.

The event has founded in six years ago after Tony’s ten-year-old son, Jak Fada, died from a ruptured heart artery on November 6, 2017, the day after his grandfather, Jimmy Tomlin, had sadly died.

While the official verdict recorded by the Coroner was a ruptured artery, Tony believes Jak “died of a broken heart”, after struggling to come to terms with Jimmy’s passing.

That Christmas, the grief-stricken family decided to focus their energy on creating a meaningful legacy for Jak, with the event seeing them purchase and collect hundreds of presents, which they wrapped up and delivered in time for Christmas morning - something they have done every year since.

Tony Fada (right) with Kiaryn Abott, a staff member at Hedworth Hall where the 2023 ‘Wrap for Jak’ will be taking place.

Speaking ahead of this year’s event, Tony has reflected on the first ‘Wrap for Jak’ and highlighted how much his son would have loved to get involved with something like this.

He said: “We wanted to carry on Jak’s legacy and help other children in the town, I don’t know how we did the first one but we managed it.

“We aimed to help 68 children that year and ended up helping 120 after just six weeks of collecting presents.

“From then on, we just wanted to do it every single year and I think since we started, we’ve collected around 12,000 to 13,000 individual gifts and helped around 1,500 families- I will do it every year till the day I die.

“Jak would have loved it, he was very selfless and he had a bright future ahead of him so it is fantastic to carry on his legacy and do it all in his name.

“The room here at Hedworth Hall is massive, we’ve got space for a DJ to entertain the kids, storage for the presents and enough space to get everything organised.

From left: Kiaryn Abbott, Hedworth Hall staff member, Samantha Murray, Tony’s fiancée, and Tony Fada, founder of ‘Wrap for Jak’.

“On the actual day of the ‘Wrap for Jak’, we invite members of the public to come along and help wrap the gifts and then the gifts will be delivered to the families in the days after. It is an amazing day.

“Every year is amazing and I can’t thank Lisa Nightingale enough for giving us the venue for this year’s event, it was a bit stressful thinking about where to hold it so it is great to have something set in stone.”

This year’s ‘Wrap for Jak’ will take place at Hedworth Hall, on Dean Road, on Sunday, December 3 - with collections for 2023 already underway.

Tony will be looking to deliver the presents to the families on December 4, 5 and 6 so they have them in plenty of time for Christmas morning.

If you want to help or donate to ‘Wrap for Jak’, you can find out more information and contact Tony at: https://www.facebook.com/wrapforjak.

‘Wrap for Jak’ charity event aims to help over 200 disadvantaged South Tyneside children this Christmas