Gareth, I’ve known you so long, I knew you when you had hair - before you had even married the fantastic Shirl. All the football we played together, the games we watched together, drank together, spent time together and all the laughter and fun. I’ve watched your beautiful family grow up and I know that if you could see them all right now and how they are dealing with this, your heart would burst with pride. Every time there was the slightest crisis in my little life it felt like you were there for me. You gave me loads of career guidance. If I had health issues, or girlfriend problems, financial difficulties, redundancy, whatever, I knew that you were there for me, that you cared for me, that you had my back and would offer support and fight my corner. And I never had to ask for it was always offered. You had a brilliant and wholly genuine way of making people feel special. From all the posts here, it is evident that you have been dishing out acts of kindness, warmth and generosity to just about everyone that was fortunate to know you. And now you are gone and our hearts are broken and none of us can quite believe it. You once said to me, “One of the good things about getting old is that you have old friends”. I’ll never forget you, Gareth. You lived life to the full and have touched so many lives and I feel so privileged and thankful that you were such a great friend to us. Pamph xxxxx