Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

Friends of a father-of-two who died after a fall in Turkey are trekking from Senghenydd to Snowdon to raise money for his children.

Ben Crook, from Abertridwr, travelled to Antalya, Turkey, with his partner Jess Jenkins, and children, to celebrate his 32nd birthday in September last year.

Together with Ms Jenkins, friends Owen Bell-Langford, Dai Ball, Darren Johns, Kyle Jenkins, Geraint Merkle, Scott Manshio, Callum Rowe, Arron Owens, and Kaylam Dawes are walking 150 miles in five days.

So far, £3,600 has been raised. A message on the appeal’s GoFundMe page reads: “Ben was an amazing human and he would do this, and so much more, to support others in this situation.

“That’s what makes it so important we see this through and we raise as much money as we can for these two young kids.

“Please give what you can when you can, everything and anything will help this cause. This village, this community, is capable of coming together to create special moments and a big difference. Let’s make this one of those moments.”

An inquest into Mr Crook’s death was held in Newport on June 10, where a verdict of accidental death was recorded.

The hearing was told how Mr Crook was a nervous flier and had begun drinking from his home in Graig y Fedw and during the journey to Bristol Airport. He continued drinking at Bristol after their flight was delayed.

After being refused further alcohol on the plane, Mr Crook shouted at a male cabin crew member and ended up having a drunken row with Ms Jenkins in which he broke both their mobile phones.

When the plane landed in Turkey, Mr Crook was escorted off the plane.

The window fitter was last seen in Kaleiçi, the old town district of Antalya, by a couple, before he disappeared “looking shaken and hungover”.

He had borrowed their phone and had tried to contact his father and his partner, but Gwent Coroner’s Court heard the message Mr Crook had sent his father was never received as it went to a spam folder.

He was found lying on rocky ground at the bottom of a tall building – less than a mile from the family’s hotel – and died at Antalya Training and Research Hospital at 2.15am on September 25.

His father had flown to Turkey after learning of his son’s disappearance only to be told of his death on arrival.

A post-mortem, carried out in Newport, gave his cause of death as a fractured skull and pelvis caused by blunt trauma as a result of a fall.

In evidence, Mr Crook’s sister, Amy, said her brother had suffered from mental health problems since he was a teenager and that his drug and alcohol consumption had increased in the six months prior to his death.

However she said the family did not believe he would have taken his own life because of the two children he adored.

Toxicology blood tests found evidence of alcohol and cocaine in his system in addition to ketamine – although the latter was likely as a result from treatment by paramedics in a bid to resuscitate Crook.

Gwent coroner Caroline Saunders said alcohol and drugs “may have caused disorientation and poor judgement” for Mr Crook.

However she added: “But this is insufficient to determine he fell as a result of the drugs he had taken.

“I find the fall was an accident, the exact details of which are unknown.”

Additional reporting by Wales News Service.