Mrs Hayward “could not wait to get back to see what she could do”, he said, “so we built a school in the local village first and we went from strength to strength and got 250 kids sponsored in 18 months”.
“In 2003 we became a registered charity. A lot of people helped us and Sue knew the right people to ask, she was so determined,” he continued.
He said she would have been “absolutely over the moon” to see the tower lit up in their honour.
“One of our first children, who came from a very poor family, is now a captain in the Kenyan Navy,” Mr Hayward said.
“My wife would have loved to have seen somebody like that, just one person to have made it.”
Fifty-five children currently live at Happy House and they have written letters to every primary school in Blackpool to share their stories.
