One year on from losing Andrew, Little Havens has organised a fun run in memory of him, the Baton of Life. This is taking place on 25th April at 6pm round Hyde Park's Serpentine. Any further donations are welcome for the race on this page, and will go directly to Little Havens.
Andrew, Mumfy, Fingers – where do you start with someone like him?
On paper, he sounds like a lunatic, and that’s about right. We’ve spent the last couple of days laughing and crying celebrating his life, sometimes both at the same time. Competitive Trader and shameless fool, football fanatic despite a lifelong love affair with West Ham, blunt and charming, definitely the man to turn to in a storm. Unstoppable and modest, a brilliant father and uncle - the biggest kid of the lot.
He died tragically, pushing himself and his peak fitness – although none of his family can believe that, given his fascination with all things pyrotechnic, he actually made it into adulthood. We have so many stories about him and they’re all funny. We genuinely believe that he died without any regrets, doing what he loved - competing against himself.
Apart from a shaky school career – mostly their fault for not being able to recognise evident genius – he was a success at everything he did - which he did in his own way – great father, wonderful loving husband (unless the football was on), brother, son, friend and stubborn bugger. He leaves behind Tess, who by her strength in dealing with this devastating loss, has reminded us all of why he didn’t deserve her.
In a recent prescient moment, he told Tess that he wanted any funeral of his to be a celebration – in the full Roman Catholic tradition – albeit in fancy dress. Anyone familiar with Andrew will know that he was difficult to dissuade from his chosen course of action, but we’ve settled on no black at the service.
We’d like to remember Andrew by helping others and so to this end, the family would request that in lieu of flowers and cards, donations be made – and Andrew will be watching you, so do his memory proud and dig deep.
