Tributes have been paid to a Bristol man who has drowned in a river trying to save his family, while on holiday in Jamaica.
Remo Douglas was with his young family in the Clarendon parish in Jamaica on Friday, December 16 when tragedy struck. Reports from Jamaica suggest Remo, his family and others were swimming at the popular beauty spot but the river levels rose and got faster due to heavy rain.
The 34-year-old from Easton in Bristol managed to get his partner Nicola-Lee (Nicky) Cameron and his stepdaughter Khloe-Lee Gayle to safety. He went back for Nicky's 11-year-old niece Brehania Syndale, but was unable to rescue her and both Remo and Brehania tragically drowned.
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Local residents and eye-witnesses pulled Remo and the young girl from the water and both were taken to hospital, but were pronounced dead. The tragedy happened just a few days before his baby daughter’s first birthday, which Remo and Nicola were planning to celebrate out in Jamaica.
Back in Bristol, Remo’s family have been left devastated by the tragedy. He leaves a mother and father, Euthlyn and Norris Douglas, two older sisters Jacqueline and Georgia and an older brother Conate. Friends have set up a fundraiser to help with funeral expenses.
Remo grew up in Easton and Barton Hill, and attended Bannerman Road and Barton Hill primary schools, before going on to St George Community College, now City Academy. At school he was renowned for his acting and music skills, performing on the stage at the Colston Hall and the Bristol Hippodrome, and forming a rap group with his friends.
After he left school, Remo worked in a wide range of jobs, including for several years with his father at the Bedminster blinds company Appeal Home Shading. He had a love of motorcycles and mopeds, and was well-known for getting around Bristol on two wheels.
He settled down with his partner Nicola and recently moved to Wolverhampton, to become a much-loved father to her daughter Khloe, and the couple had another daughter Kacie just before Christmas last year.
His brother Conate said the tragedy has hit the whole family very hard. “He was out there on holiday, visiting family. He’d taken his partner and stepdaughter,” he said. “From what we’ve heard, they were all out at the river for a swim and it started to rain and the water started coming too fast. His partner’s niece was struggling, so he got Nicky to safety and his stepdaughter and went back in to try to get her out, but they were both taken by the river,” he added.
'He would always think of others first'
Family broke the news to Mr and Mrs Douglas straight away. “I talked to him on the phone on my way to work early on Friday, and he was out with friends. I got home from work and heard the news and my blood went cold,” said Norris, who said the tragedy showed what kind of person Remo was. “He was the kind of person who wouldn’t think of himself at all, he would always think of other people first, and do anything for anyone.”
His mother Euthlyn brought Remo to England from Jamaica as a small baby, and he grew up very resilient. “He was a very helpful child, he was always asking what he could do to help. When he was a baby, he’d be making his own bottle up - he was very independent, and very active,” she said.
“He grew up to be a hard worker. He never caused anyone any trouble, he’d work hard, especially after he had his partner and had a baby. His stepdaughter loved him too, she would call him ‘dad’.
“He was really into his motorbikes as a young man. One time, it was raining and he came off and ended up in the hospital with a broken foot - he broke it in three places, and had to have pins in it. Soon after, I was going to Jamaica but had no one to take me to the airport, but he said he would, and went with me on the coach.
"At the airport, he somehow got my suitcase and my hand luggage, and was carrying them even though he was hopping along on crutches. That was the kind of boy he was - he’d do anything to help,” she added. “I don’t know how he managed to do it all on one foot.”
Conate remembered Remo’s passion for music and love of life. “He was funny too, every time he came into the room he’d be looking to make you laugh. He loved to dance, he loved to put on music and have it out of the window and getting everyone there to dance.”
“He is going to be so much missed,” said Euthlyn. “Everybody is crying for him, he was so well known and well loved in London, in Wolverhampton, in Bristol, in America, in Jamaica, all over,” she added.
A candlelight vigil is being held this evening (Friday, December 30) at 5pm, in the community room at Lansdowne Court in Easton where he lived, and the funeral is being planned to take place in Jamaica. “His partner was talking to us after this happened, and she’s devastated,” said Euthlyn. “She said ‘we had so many things planned and none of it is going to happen now’, it’s just so terrible.”
Remo’s friend Lauroy Allen has started a fundraising page to help with the funeral expenses, and also to help with the plans to hold an event in the UK to celebrate Remo’s life too. Within just a week, thousands of pounds has already been raised towards a £6,000 target.
Lauroy described Remo as a ‘beautiful soul’. “The family plan to have his funeral in Jamaica, but in the coming weeks, there will be an event to celebrate the life of Remo Douglas,” said Lauroy on the fundraising page. “This way all of his friends and family can get together to remember a special man who lost his life trying to save another, a true hero! A selfless act that we will never forget.
“All of us, as his friends and family, want him to have the best send off that he deserves as a man who cared about others to the very end,” he added.
*To visit Lauroy's GoFundMe page for Remo and his family, click here.
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