Sunday 14 March 2004 was the last time I saw Melv.  I had gone up to visit him in Darlington before I started a new job.  Clare and I had thought that we would go with the kids to the Olympics in Athens.  Melv had been the driving force to try and organise everything.  The cost had spiralled up so we pulled out and it was a good job too in the end since I lost my job at the end of 2003.  So I decided that before I started my new job I would go and visit Melv.  I drove up on the Friday and stopped off at Castleford to have a look round the outdoor shops at the outlet retail park there, can’t miss a bargain you see.  Followed Melv’s directions since it was my first time visiting and finally arrived at this large house.  It was huge.  My family of 5 have a smaller house.  Melv gave me a quick tour and as a good host he had made me a bed and provided me with a towel.  Far better than some of the B&B I’ve stayed at over the years.

We went out for a beer and something to eat.  It wasn’t very often that I meet up with Melv on my own.  Most of the time when I saw him I was with a group of friends from Uni, but there were times when the two of us just met up and had a chat.

When we met we didn’t really talk about the normal lads stuff, you know football, rugby, beer, woman and so on.  A lot of the time was spent talking about life.  I must correct myself in one respect, there were times when we would talk about rugby and quite passionately, which is fair enough.  It’s a very important topic.  The things I will remember are us just talking very honestly, no charade of trying to outdo one another; we were just ourselves, putting the world to right.

Melv suffered from ME.  He came down with the condition in the early 1990s and ME greatly affected his life.  Melv was unable to pursue the career he wanted/and deserved, his life style also had to adjust to allow him to cope with his condition.  During that visit Melv spoke frankly about living with ME, how his goals for a career had radically changed and what he needed to do to make himself more financially secure.  He planned to downsize to enable himself to pay off his mortgage and move to Manchester.  He wanted to be in a busy city since when he was unwell the only way to recover was to rest completely.  This would consist of long periods at home and he needed to have the opportunity to meet people during the day.  Where he was living was very quiet during the day, and he just wanted to have the opportunity to see people.  He also talked about how awkward it was to meet woman because of his restricted life style.  But overall he saw a way making everything work.  There were a lot of things to live for.

We did a short walk that weekend and I returned home on the Sunday.  I did have the opportunity of meeting up with Melv in July 2004 but that all fell through for me due to other commitments.

Melv was officially last seen leaving his hotel in Athens on the morning of 3 September 2004.  He was due to catch a flight back to the UK that evening; he never got onto that flight and has not been seen since.  So this story is unfinished, since I do not know what happened next, and I may never know.

Ray

Tags: Lndon Marathon

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