The family and friends of 20-year old University of York student Harvey Parker have been through a living hell over the past few weeks. This was a young man whose life had barely started – yet after a night out in Brixton and later Charing Cross’s Heaven nightclub on December 17th, he did not return home.

What on earth had happened to him? A police search quickly started to try and find the answer to this question. All those who knew him, in the meantime, spent Christmas and the New Year period with this question in the air. And now, police have confirmed a body found in the River Thames on Wednesday is indeed Harvey Parker.

I cannot imagine what his friends and family are going through right now. To any of you who read this, I extend my deepest sympathies and condolences. I do strongly suspect, however, that knowing how this utterly tragic event has panned out brings little comfort at this time.

Exactly what happened is unclear at the moment, although police seem pretty sure that no one else was involved. No doubt the full facts will be established soon – but one good thing has come out of this very dark time.

And that is a JustGiving fundraiser raised by his friends and family. Set up with a target of £10,000 and the goal of “raising funds in memory of our beautiful Harvey”, it has over £51,000 in the kitty at the time of writing. Do send a donation…