Northern Irish schoolboy selling special charity calendar in memory of inspiring teacher who died from cancer

A NORTHERN Irish schoolboy has created a special charity calendar filled with inspiring messages in memory of a beloved teacher who passed away from cancer in 2017.

Drumragh Integrated College’s head boy Jamie Larkin produced the 366 Pockets of Positivity calendar in tribute to Graham Peters, a popular English teacher at the school.

Mr Peters was Jamie’s English teacher for four years at the Co Tyrone school and helped foster his keen interest in the subject.

He also provided the inspiration for the 18-year-old’s desktop calendar which features a different positive quotation for every single day of the year.

“He was a huge fan of quotes,” Jamie explains to the Belfast Telegraph.

"His room was covered in quotes from Toy Story to Disney and everything in between

"In class, if we ever needed inspiration or motivation, all we needed to do was turn to one of the four walls. Mr Peters would always point to one during the week, a sort of quote of the week idea, so that's where this idea came from."

Quotes from Mr Peters feature alongside an impressive selection of inspiring words from famous figures and other inspirational speakers.

The idea of creating the calendar as part of a tribute to Mr Peters was something Jamie had been mulling over for some time.

During his campaign to earn the nomination of head boy, he vowed to create the calendar because he would "like to do something to remember him".

"I didn't feel it would be right to move on to our next chapter without remembering someone who was such a huge part of our lives at the school," he said.

After being named head boy, Jamie spent three solid months picking and choosing quotes and sought out the approval of Mr Peters’ widow, Karen, who loved the idea.

An initial batch of 500 desktop calendars were printed and put on sale for £10 each with the proceeds for everyone sold going to the charity Care for Cancer, who the teen also volunteers with.

Having gone on sale back on November 29, half of the original batch have already been sold with Jamie happy to produce more if the demand is there.

For now though, he’s just happy to be giving something back to a man and teacher that meant a lot to him and countless other pupils at Drumragh Integrated College

"Mr Peters always used to say, 'I'm not leaving until I see you smile',” Jamie tells the Belfast Telegraph.

"It was one of his huge quotes, so we've printed this inside the front cover of our calendar as a reminder of him.”