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Twayne Crook’s family is overjoyed that they have been able to honour his dying wish and bring his body back home to Jamaica to be buried.

The 23-year-old Jamaican athlete died from stage four stomach cancer in New Orleans, USA, earlier this month.

“His body has been brought back to the country. It’s been here since last week Tuesday, and we’re just happy. The funeral will be on October 13, in Vere, Clarendon,” his mother, Joy Garvey, told THE CENTRAL STAR.

“The Saturday he said to me, ‘Mommy, God forbid anything happen to me, I want to go back to Jamaica. I want to go back to Jamaica to bury’,” Crooks told his mom before his passing.

Garvey said the family created a GoFundMe account to help fund the cost of bringing him home. It raised more than US$8,000 of the US$20,000 goal.

“We’re just so happy, and thankful, thankful to everyone for their support,” she said.

Crooks, a former Kingston College, Vere Technical High School, Denbigh High School and UTech athlete, had a promising track career. He was attending the Southern University at New Orleans.

Following her son’s untimely death, Garvey told THE CENTRAL STAR that her son began feeling slight stomach pains since June of this year, but they didn’t see it as a cause for alarm.

“He was feeling a little pain in June. He was on vacation in Jamaica, in July, and he went back up in New Orleans because he had to go to school. About three weeks ago, they called and said I had to come down because my son is sick bad,” she said in an interview.

Crooks died one week after he was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer.

“Even when he was on the hospital bed, all that was on his mind was going back on the track, go back to run, he loved his career. He told me, ‘Mommy, just as when I am ready to take care of you and daddy, I got sick’, and he was doing so well,” she said.

“He was fighting, he said, ‘Mommy, be strong, because I have to get back on the track” she said.

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