ABERTO BONANNI

It is with great regret that we report the tragic death of Alberto in his flat in Magella Towers in Islamabad during the earthquake of 8th October 2005.

His last email to Simon was dated 4th October and in it he lamented the fact that it was difficult to get people to come to Pakistan to play football in the current climate but he wished us luck in our next "venue" suggesting he might even join us there. Sadly he will not be playing with us again.

REMEMBERING ALBERTO
by Simon Smart 14th October 2005

"I went down to the Margalla Towers site last night with the High Commissioner. There was a small ceremony attended by the Minster for the Interior and various other politicians to say thank you to the British Rescue teams that have been working flat out since they got here last Sunday morning.

The site is quite a distressing scene, but strangely it was helpful to be there. The rescue teams are an amazing group of people and all volunteers. I spoke with one of the team leaders and at the end mentioned that we had a friend in there. I took the liberty to thank him on behalf of myself and all of you for the great work that they do. I hope you don't mind.

One of the other team leaders was also saying that they are desperate for sponsorship. As they are all volunteers they are all self funding, although they do have some corporate sponsors. Obviously we will all do our bit in different ways to remember not just Alberto but all the people that have suffered in the last week. But I was thinking that a good way to remember Alberto would be to make contributions to RAPID, the S&R team that have been working here.

Like I said, we will all have our own way of remembering our times here in Pakistan and the close friends we made, not least with Alberto, so there is no pressure. If you would like to do something like this then let me know and I'll send you the appropriate details."