Following the recent death of American actor Al Matthews in La Zenia, his daughter Sam stayed in the area to clear out the actor’s effects, amongst which was a mobility scooter and a walking rollator, a chair with wheels on to the uninitiated.
Sam explained her father’s wish that his mobility equipment be handed on to a worthy cause on his passing, as a result of which she made contact with neighbour Eddie Coleman of the Royal British Legion. The photograph shows Sam handing over the equipment which will be overhauled prior to being put into service in the local branch.
Matthews, the actor who played cigar smoking Sergeant Apone in the 1986 sci-fi horror classic film Aliens, was a former serviceman himself, having served in Vietnam as a sergeant in the US Marine Corps where he received 13 combat awards and decorations, including two purple hearts. Sam said it was only right and fitting that the equipment should go to a veteran’s charity.
