Tonga tsunami: Tattoo and piercing community helps husband of victim Angela Glover

The tattoo and piercing community has raised thousands for the husband of Tonga tsunami victim Angela Glover.

Mrs Glover, 50, from Brighton, died after being swept away when the tsunami struck the Pacific island on 15 January.

More than £3,000 has been donated to an online fundraiser to help Angela's husband James rebuild his life.

A former colleague of Mr Glover said the loss of his wife, home and business was "untimely and horrific".

Tota Volpe-Landi, who had run the Happy Sailor tattoo and piercing shop in Shoreditch with Mr Glover before he moved to Tonga, set up the online fundraising page.

"[We are] just trying to help out someone that lost his business, his house," she said.

"Most of the people that I recognise from the donations are either tattooists or customers that got tattooed by James for a long time."

The page calls on "friends, inkers and the large tattoo family" to help raise £5,000 for Mr Glover, describing his circumstances as "untimely and horrific".

Mrs Glover, who co-managed a tattoo parlour and ran a dog rescue centre in Tonga, died while trying to save her dogs, according to her brother Nick Eleini.

Social media posts said Mr Glover managed to survive the 1.2m (4ft) waves by clinging on to a tree.

Ms Volpe-Landi said: "They found three of their dogs alive, which in the catastrophe was maybe a little sparkle of something nice, because I know they both loved their dogs."

The tsunami swept through Tonga after the eruption of an undersea volcano.

The eruption could be heard more than 1,000 miles away in New Zealand.

UN humanitarian officials reported that about 84,000 people - 80% of Tonga's population - have been impacted by the eruption.

Tonga is a group of more than 170 islands spread over an area of the South Pacific roughly the size of Japan.

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