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Let me tell you a story about Peter Mayhew who played Chewbacca, and who died today:
My brother had Muscular Dystrophy, which is a terrible muscle-wasting disease. He died at 18 (when I was 16). Not surprisingly, my parents were very active in fundraising for the MD Association.
One of the things my mum was very active with was organising celebrities to help out and raise the profile of charity events.
Peter Mayhew got involved and helped us out a lot. He came to all kinds of events, to be a celebrity presence and draw attention to the cause.
We always had a big banner at any fundraising stall that said “FIGHT MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY”. One time, at the Goodwood Show, we had a tent behind the stall. Peter was resting in the tent. Some smartarse came up and yelled, “Where’s Muscular Dystrophy? I’ll fight him!”
Peter quickly raised a finger to his lips, then burst out of the tent, all seven foot three inches of him, and yelled, “HERE I AM!” The smartarse literally screamed. 😂
Peter also visited my brother’s school for kids with disabilities, on several occasions. He would hang out and make them laugh and just act the fool.
He became a family friend and would visit our house. Once him and his girlfriend of the time took me and my brother to Thorpe Park for the day.
Bear in mind, all this stuff happened during the early to mid-eighties, at the height of Star Wars fever. But he had time for all this. He told me Star Wars secrets no one else knew and made me feel really special.
When he split up with that girlfriend I mentioned earlier, our family and he sort of lost touch. Then he moved to the US and I moved to Australia. But I will never forget what an amazingly kind man he was, and the love he showed my brother. Vale, Peter. You were a good man.
I’ll try to find some photos, but they’re all slides buried in a box somewhere. Maybe it’s time to dig those out and go through them. My dad took hundreds!
I’m remembering more as I sit here thinking about Peter. The first time he came to our house, I didn’t know he was coming. I hadn’t met him yet. The doorbell went and my dad said, “Why don’t you get that?” So weird, he’d never suggested that before.
I answered the door and found myself staring at a giant dude’s belt. My dad said my gaze rose up and up, as my mouth fell open wider and wider. I knew Peter had done some charity events and my parents said I’d get to meet him one day. This was that day.
He joined us for dinner and my dad sat him next to me. I would have been about 12. My head was well below his shoulder.
At one point, only halfway through my dinner, Peter said, “Aren’t you going to eat that then?” and he picked up my full size dinner plate with one hand by reaching over the top and gripping the edges with his finger tips, just for the gag.
Check out @TheWookieeRoars for so many more tributes.
