Today is the funeral of one of my best friends and also long time work colleague Chris Cusack. Since hearing of his passing before Christmas it’s taken a lot to process how much I miss him. Having taken the time I’ve needed for myself I want to share how amazing he was in this post for the world to know.
If you have followed me for a while you’ll know my blog lead to a partnership with my friend Srin Madipalli that created Disability Horizons magazine and Accomable accessible travel site. Then more recently Purple Goat started between myself and the Goat agency. Something you probably are less aware of is that Chris was instrumental in the success of all 3 ventures.
Almost 6 years ago Srin, Liz (Disability Horizons editor) and I put a call out on social media for an advertising sales role. It was commission only as we had no funds for salaries. This was a way to hopefully unlock revenue. We received one of the best ever emails signalling interest in a role. It demonstrated competence, humility and bundles of appropriate humour. It was from Chris.
Chris hit the phones and hustled his way to a personal income for him and much needed funds for Disability Horizons. Then as Accomable started to take off, Chris was drafted over to recruit accessible accommodation providers to list on the site. As you’ll know Accomable ultimately was acquired by Airbnb.
So with Srin in San Francisco with Airbnb and many changes from the buy out, Chris and I brainstormed giving Disability Horizons another injection of energy. We ended up creating a mini marketing agency. Providing all sorts of marketing services to clients. This time with me selling and Chris running the accounts. Eventually this morphed in to the idea of an influencer marketing agency specialising in disability.
After I first made contact with the Goat agency it was Chris who suggested we offer a talk to their staff in their London offices. This talk we did together in summer of 2019 was the first step in finally launching Purple Goat in April 2020. Chris was the second employee, after me, and was a rock by my side as we navigated yet another new groundbreaking venture.
I know this has been work focused so far. But it’s the thing that brought us together and bonded us. However we had many long chats on the phone about our shared disability Spinal Muscular Atrophy, about health, about care, about funding, about equipment and so forth. More so we just enjoyed chatting about life and always enjoyed each others company.
We also met when we could in person. I remember being at the SMA conference in Stratford upon Avon together with our partners. Some of the SMA community in their 20s were asking us questions about sex. While the teenagers were bending their ears in the distance to try and over hear us ? It was such a funny night in that bar.
There’s too many stories to share in the post. So I’ll close with who Chris was to me. He was a family man to Amy and their daughter Grace (who always joins our Friday team meeting). He was professional, hard working and dedicated in work. He was loyal, reliable and wise as a friend. He mentored people without it ever being overtly that. He had the most awesome sense of humour. He was just simply a brilliant human being!
I’m going to miss you so much Chris. Rest In Peace brother ?
