My friend Gary Lewis passed away earlier this month as the age of 52 . Gary was an Ospreys season ticker holder, Riverside regular and often used the Neath/Bryncoch supporters bus to games. A group of us would regularly sit together on the halfway line and have a great laugh – win or lose, we’d enjoy each others’ company (normally entertaining each other by shouting non sensical comments at the opposition, advice to the ref (and assistant refs) or endless shouts of “Go on Jeff!” aimed to encourage Mr Hassler and also to make the rest of us laugh). What was funny was Gary would often say he couldn’t remember where his real season ticket seats were as we’d sat as a group for years but never sorted our tickets out to make it official. The picture here is of us on the most memorable of away trips to Dublin for the Rabo 12 Grand Final – Gary’s wearing the Neath FC top just to be a bit different!
Gary died of cancer and leaves behind his loving wife Janine, as well as three wonderful children Ellie, Jess and Tom. Gary will be sorely missed by his friends and family but also remembered fondly for the pleasure he brought to the lives of everyone who knew him. He was the coolest, nicest and one of the funniest and most handsome mates I’ve ever had.
Gary’s friends have set up a bank account to help raise money for a memorial (perhaps a bench, or a new scoreboard) at Bryncoch RFC where Gary coached and refereed the boys from U7 to U16.
If anyone would like to make a donation to Gary’s memorial fund, please can you do so via a bank transfer (a close family friend has set up a new account specifically for this – so the account name is Sarah Gould but I can vouch that this is legitimate).
Account details:
Name: Sarah Gould
Account number: 63280964
Sort Code 07-16-60
Grant Berni
Vice-Chair
OSC
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