Simon Boas

Simon Boas
Born	(1977-07-06)6 July 1977 London
Died	15 July 2024(2024-07-15) (aged 47) Jersey
Education	University of Oxford University of Bath (MSc)
Occupation	Executive director
Organization	Jersey Overseas Aid

Simon Charles Boas (6 July 1977 - 15 July 2024) was a British aid worker who worked for development charities and the United Nations (UN). His inspirational writings about his terminal illness diagnosis were featured in British national newspapers and on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Early life and education

He grew up in London where he attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and then Winchester where he won a scholarship for his secondary education at Winchester College. His father was a businessman and his mother was a book editor who also worked for Citizens Advice. Both volunteer for Shelter and their local food bank.

At the age of 16 he delivered his first humanitarian aid convoy to a refugee camp near Mostar in Bosnia with a church group, encountering mass graves and bombed out villages. During a gap year he lived in Cambodia and Vietnam.

He studied English at Brasenose College, Oxford but a car accident meant he did not sit his final exams.

In 2006-7 he studied for a master's degree in international policy analysis at the University of Bath, graduating with distinction.

Career

After university, Boas worked as a tour guide in Egypt, Turkey and India. In 2004 he went on to work for the Palestine Economic Policy Research Unit. In 2008 he worked in Ramallah for a year as special adviser to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation for the Palestinian National Authority. During this time he met his French future wife Aurélie at an airport in Israel. In March 2009 he became country director for Palestine at Positive Planet, a Paris-based NGO.

After his marriage, the couple lived in the Gaza Strip from 2010 to 2012 where he was head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation office. In November 2012, they moved to Nepal where he worked for the same organisation as coordinator of its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.

In October 2014 they returned to the UK and he began work for the Government where he was seconded to several organisations including HM Revenue & Customs and the Government of Jersey. They moved permanently to Jersey in 2016 where he was executive director of Jersey's overseas aid agency from that October until his death in 2024.

During their time in Jersey, Boas and his wife volunteered for the Honorary Police in their home parish of Trinity, but never made any arrests. He became a Samaritans volunteer in 2019. He was a trustee of Jersey Heritage from 2020 and became chairman in 2023.

Cancer diagnosis

Boas smoked for 30 years and described a few periods of his drinking as "fairly Churchillian". In September 2023, when he was age 46, Boas wrote an article in the Jersey Evening Post where he announced that lumps in his neck and difficulty swallowing had been diagnosed as terminal throat cancer. Despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Southampton General Hospital, the squamous-cell carcinoma spread to his liver, spine, pelvis, sternum and soft tissues.

The newspaper published the second of three articles about his diagnosis and approach to life on 11 February 2024 and it was subsequently reprinted in The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. He also read it on the BBC Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House. He said: "What I'm trying to convey is how enjoying life to the full kind of prepares you for this."

His third and final article was published on 13 May 2024. People from all over the world contacted him, including celebrants and priests who wanted permission to read parts of the letters at weddings or in sermons.

In May 2024 he was awarded the Bailiff of Jersey's silver seal "for his contribution to the Island through service to the community and to the betterment of humanity through both his work in Jersey Overseas Aid and by his writings". On 6 July he moved into Jersey Hospice Care. During his last days, he was due to meet Charles III and Queen Camilla at a tea party during their visit to the island, but as his condition had worsened, instead the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey hand-delivered a letter from them which said how moved they had been by his charitable work and courage.

He died at the hospice on 15 July 2024, the day of the royal visit.

A Beginner's Guide to Dying

His book, A Beginner's Guide to Dying, became the second-best seller on Amazon.co.uk through pre-orders before being published posthumously on 12 September 2024. Some of the proceeds from the book will be donated to the International Children's Palliative Care Network and African Palliative Care Association. It became a bestseller in the first week of sales, and all 20,000 copies in the initial print run sold within the first month. The book is to be published in seven other countries including Germany, Japan, Latvia and Taiwan.