ROXBURY – Joey Gallant left us unexpectedly on Saturday, Aug. 16, just one day before his 27th birthday, while preparing for his birthday celebration. He collapsed in his home in Roxbury and never regained life.

His parents, Tim and Cathy, older brother, Brad, sister-in-law, Mary (Brad and Mary’s three children, Chris Field, Jaclyn Torres and Cameron Gallant), a younger sister, Angela, Grammy Rose (Bither) and his best friend, Steven survive him, as well as many relatives and friends who loved him.

He will always be remembered for the happiness he brought others. Although he suffered with Crohn’s disease and having metal plates in his back from sports injuries, he lived his life to the fullest. He was always reaching out to get the most out of everything he did.

He completed police academy training, was a volunteer firefighter in the towns of Roxbury and Andover and helped with the Mexico Explorers program.

He loved the outdoors, hunting, fishing and camping and he especially loved Roxbury Pond and Black Mountain areas.

His family and friends will always remember him as an outgoing person who would do anything for others and normally go out of his way to help someone. He wrote in his diary last March, “I feel like I’m a very old person, because I have already done and seen so much in my life and am grateful for all the experiences I have already seen and done.”

He will be greatly missed by his family and friends, and they ask that in memory of him, donations be made in his name to the Mexico Explorers program so that this organization can continue to teach our children what he believed in.