Philip was twenty one and in his final year as a law student at the University of Birmingham when he died. He had a healthy enthusiasm for life, an intelligent mind and a transparently warm nature. His sudden death was a tragedy to all his family and those that knew him.
The Davies family, Philip on his mother's knee and big brother Jonathan to his right.
Philip's brother Jonathan was keen to create some sort of online memorial to Philip, a legacy that could show many of his happy years and make it easy for his school and university friends in particular to view, make contact and to maybe help develop by sending in pictures and thoughts of their own.
After some research he found however that there was no appropriate service available and the technology and cost to create one himself was prohibitive.
The experience of losing Philip suddenly and at such a young age was traumatic for all the family and the bereavement process so difficult.
Only a couple of years later, Philip's mum Pamela also died after a short battle with cancer, aged just 55. It's impossible to know whether Philip's death directly led to his mum's condition, but it really demonstrated the resulting health consequences of a difficult bereavement.
Whilst Philip's death gave Jonathan the idea for MuchLoved, it was his mother's death that gave him the determination to turn MuchLoved into a reality.
The year after his mum died, Jonathan obtained the domain www.muchloved.com and started to make plans with his university friend and computer programmer Andy Daniels.
2000-2005: Creating the service >
