Fund grows as bereaved father Simon Jones aims to prevent another tragic loss

On the eve of his teenage son's funeral, Simon Jones thanked racing for its 'remarkable' response to a fund set up in his memory.

Tim Jones, a student and promising rider, took his own life last month, and his father launched a JustGiving page with the aim of paying for volunteers to have mental health training, so they might be able to spot signs of problems among stable staff.

"I wanted to do something that left a legacy and supports our sport," said Simon Jones, an owner at Micky Hammond's yard in Middleham, to which his son had been attached since the age of ten.

Death of promising young rider Tim Jones leaves Micky Hammond team devastated

"It's been remarkable. Optimistically, when I set it up I thought if we could get £5,000 it would be great – we got £5,000 in two days. And we're currently just short of £9,000, which is phenomenal.

"The comments are about Tim but an awful lot have also said what a great cause. It seems to have hit a nerve up and down the industry."

Tim Jones was 17 at the time of his death and his father hopes the fund can help others in his situation.

Tim Jones: died at the age of 17Credit: Simon Jones

"Racing Welfare is doing some great stuff but people have got to actually go and find the staff in the first place," he said on Sunday.

"We hope to give mental health first-aiders training so they can spot when their colleagues are in a difficult place, when they're struggling.

"We can do work with them so that there's somebody in those yards who might spot a conversation that might indicate somebody's struggling.

"We know that for the last few months Tim had been a bit irritable and aggressive, which wasn't him. If somebody had sat and thought 'that's more than just growing pains' we might have been able to get him some help."

His son's own horse will lead the cortege on Monday and the coffin will be carried by fellow stable staff.

"Tomorrow is going to be hard," Jones said. "I've had to do some things over the last week that no dad should ever have to do and it's been incredibly hard for my wife Sally and I.

"But this has really helped. I remember on Wednesday when we hit the £5,000 mark, it was so emotional you'd have thought we'd won the Derby."

A celebration of Tim Jones's life will be held at Tennants Auctioneers in Middleham at 1pm on Jun 28 and contributions to the fund can be made here.