Today marks what would have been the 56th birthday of Alan Henning, the Eccles taxi driver-turned-humanitarian aid worker who was killed by ISIS. In celebration of the occasion, let’s look back at the life of one of our city’s kindest souls.
Born-and-bred in Eccles on August 15 1967, Alan Henning, or ‘Gadge’ to friends, was married to Barbara and fathered two children together, Lucy and Adam.
After being deeply moved by the plight of innocent people in Syria during the brutal war, Alan began to raise funds to help alleviate their suffering with aid.
Volunteering for the Worcester-based charity Al-Fatiha Globa, Alan, along with other workers, travelled to the turkey/Syria border six times to deliver aid, with his final journey in 2014 seeing him kidnapped within minutes of his arrival into the country and then held hostage for nine months by Islamic State.
Appeals were made for his release by his family and by people from all over the world, including senior Muslim religious leaders. Alan was later murdered by ISIS militants and became the fourth Western to be held hostage and killed by the group.
A permanent memorial garden to Alan was officially opened in Eccles in 2016 as a place where people can reflect and remember him.
In May this year, Alan was also honoured with the Freedom of the City in Salford by The Ceremonial Mayor, Councillor Ann-Marie Humphreys.
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