Remembering Our Founder

“Barney Curley, the architect of several of the turf’s greatest betting coups and the founder of a charity that transformed the lives of thousands of children in Africa, died on Sunday at the age of 81.

In an extraordinary life both on and off the turf, Curley won millions of pounds from the bookies over many decades and raised millions more to fund his work in Zambia with the charity Direct Aid For Africa (Dafa), which he set up following the death of his 18-year-old son, Charlie, in 1995,” The Guardian, 23 May, 2021.

Before Barney died, he spoke about how happy he was in the “twilight” of his life. He had, he said, “been granted a great privilege by God” because he was able to help people “less well off than ourselves”.

His wish, above all, was that the work of DAFA would live on and secure opportunities for school and health outcomes for children less well off.

These were his words:

“I am now in the twilight of my life, and I have been granted a great privilege by God to live my dream. Helping people less well off than ourselves.

“DAFA has been in operation for over 20 years. And at the moment, we are working on a plan to carry on for the next 20 years. If you can help. It will allow 1000s of Zambians to live their dreams to remember, they are also human beings, with all the same thoughts and dreams that we have.

“A wise man once said, It is in the giving, we receive”

“I believe he was 100% correct.”

Thank you, Barney Curley.

In 2020 Barney Curley gave a newspaper interview explaining how he was motivated to set up DAFA in 1996 after the death of his son Charlie.

“After my son’s death, I asked the “man above” for a bit of help and the assistance he gave me was unbelievable. I decided to set up a charity that would do something special and worthwhile in my son’s memory,” he said in the Sun.

And he joined Nick Luck in March 2019 in the ‘Luck On Sunday’ TV studio to talk about his life work - watch here.