A DAY of summer fun in memory of two kind-hearted lads from Claines is thought to have raised at least £8,000 for charity.

Friends and family gathered at the Rec in Cornmeadow Lane, Claines, for ‘Macca O’ Mara’s Family Fun Day’ to celebrate the lives of John McCabe, who died on January 19 2016, aged 32 and 13-year-old James O’Mara.

The event, which was previously known as ‘Macca’s Family Fun Day’, has been renamed to additionally honour James, who died on June 8 last year.

Mr McCabe died of a reaction to medication he had taken and James died of an aggressive form of leukaemia, Acute Myeloid, after battling the disease for a week.

The organisers decided to combine the events as James’ grandma June used help out at the ‘Macca’s Family Fun Day’.

Organiser John Owens said: “Everyone had a really good time over the weekend. We all enjoyed ourselves doing it.

“There were no real issues at all other than that it was really hot. Some of our volunteers needed to drunk their heads in water.

“The numbers were down on other years - a lot of people who bring their dogs to the dog show kept away because of the heat and those with young kids.

“We think there would have been a lot more people if it had been 10 degrees cooler.”

He added: “The event was the same as in other years -other than that there were two lives being remembered not one.”

Sunday’s event featured a fun dog show, pony rides, coconut shy, skittles, inflatable slides, inflatable sumo wrestling, face painting, tombola, sports activities with Freedom Leisure, music and entertainment.

On Saturday there was a charity football match and the winning team received a trophy inscribed with Mr McCabe and James’ name.

The event raised money for James’ family’s chosen charities Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Bloodwise and Children’s Liver Disease Foundation as well as the British Heart Foundation and St Pauls Hostel, in Tallow Hill.

Speaking before the event, James’ mum Becci O’Mara said: “I am really grateful that Macca’s family and friends have decided to share their annual fundraising event with us in memory of James it means we can celebrate both James and Macca and support four amazing charities by families having fun and living life.”