Hello

I am Jeanie, Andy’s wife of almost 30 years.

I want to thank you all for coming to join us in this celebration of Andy’s life.

Andy and I met in 1990 at mutual Tandem Club friends for dinner. I remember him rising from a chair, with a wide smile, white teeth, tanned face and those blue eyes but in particular I remember his lovely relaxed deep voice saying ‘oh hello Jeanie’. I then spent the whole evening trying not to let on that I fancied him! It turned out he had a tandem without a stoker and I was a stoker without a tandem; the rest as they say is history!

We shared a love of live music; he introduced me to Nina Simone, Remmy Ongala, World Music and WOMAD – the first one we went to was at Morecambe Bay. It was a much smaller event in those days and such fun.

We were both vegetarian. Andy cooked wonderful veggie and bean curries, always different, always delicious and always with cauliflower which he loved.

We were married in Nov 1992 enjoying a pre-wedding honeymoon riding tandem from Vienna to Salzburg and back. In April 1994 Andy ‘gave birth’ to his own business Dovetail Management Consultancy and in July of the same year I gave birth to our daughter Melita, named after Andy’s godmother.

Andy worked really hard at all the things he was involved in, paid and unpaid. Cycling was his lifetime passion. He campaigned tirelessly for safer roads in London through his association with the London Cycling Campaign of which he was a founder member, and Chair for several years. He was one of those people who seem to enjoy collecting committee roles and involving himself in community activities so as well as LCC, there was the local Labour Party wherever we were, running the Pimms and Beer tent at the annual Peckham Rye Park fete, as well as organising the coaches back from Dunwich for Southwark Cyclists who rode the Dunwich Dynamo (the next one is this weekend if anyone is interested!). He was involved with Consultants for Good, the Institute of Fundraising and the Herne Hill Velodrome Trust amongst others, fundraising, mentoring, advising. He held a wealth of information in that head of his! He was even one of the most regular supporters of the choir I belonged to; Koruso! Southwark Community Choir attending most of our concerts and performances and often running the bar. He deserved a gold medal for all that!

As some of you will know he did love a pun! You couldn’t mention beetroot without him coming back with ‘I’ll beetroot to you!’.

He met his diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease head on, informing himself and you might have guessed becoming involved with the Motor Neurone Disease Association at local level and then national level for the past 3 years. His post was up for re-election this year with the AGM being on 27th June. He was determined that he would continue as a trustee and submitted his name for re-election. It was something that made him feel valued and gave him a reason to go on. Rather poignantly, before the votes were announced the Chair told me that he had enough votes and would have been re-elected.

Andy’s endurance of his condition was extraordinary. As one of his birthday cards said he was One Awesome Dude!

He was my loving and loyal partner for 32 years and I thank him for all that he was and will continue to be, to me, to our beloved daughter Melita, to his family, his friends and colleagues. Rest in peace my love. I so hope you’re back on your bike.