It is with the very deepest shock and sadness that we have to bring you the dreadful news that Gareth Lewis, our Chairman, died tonight.

Some of you know that a couple of days ago he travelled to Spain, where he was due to spend Christmas and New Year with his brother and family.  His sister, Bev, travelled with him to spend a few days together.  This morning he suffered an unexpected, massive stroke, from which the doctors did not expect him to recover.  He subsequently slipped into a coma and passed away earlier this evening.

Gareth has campaigned for so long, and done so much, that it is hard to single anything out.  He was a co-founder of the Birchgrove group and one of the founding members of TaintedBlood.  For many years he was a Trustee of the Haemophilia Society and has sat on and chaired committees too numerous to mention.

As our friend, Gareth was loyal and honest.  He told it as it was and was always there for us when we needed him.  Like many others he suffered from dreadful ill health as a result of his HIV and Hepatitis C infections, but he never, ever, let it get him down or stop him from living life to the full. 

Our thoughts are with his family at this time.  We would ask that you please respect their privacy as they try to come to terms with what has happened.  We will post further details on TB as we hear them.

The TaintedBlood Committee

It was with great sadness that I heard about the passing of Gareth just over an hour ago.  I would like to send my sincere condolences to his family.  Whilst Gareth and I often did not see eye to eye on many ocassions, I found him to be extremely commited to the work he did within the campaign.  He fought very hard in what he believed in.

RIP Gareth may you be at peace with your brother Haydn.

 How very sad....

Lesley

what you told me was to live life to the full i will always remeber that, you was a great friend to have and thank you for all what you have helped me  to achive in the years i have known you .  my you rest in piece

Melanie Mckay E T member

How very sad x,  may you rest in peace Gareth. Condolences to all the family and friends.

love helen x

A tragic terrible loss. RIP Gareth. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family and friends.

Liz

Another one, gone too bloody soon. The first time i met you was at a demo at Andy Burnhams constituency office, when he cowerdly hid away from us and refused to answer our reasonable and polite questions. You taught me a lot that day Gareth, you taught me the art of perserverence, the art of never giving away too much of our dignity.

The last time was just a few months ago, were we laughed over a cup of coffee, in the Commons cafe.  So long my friend, we will not forget you and your brother.

                                                                             Christy.

very sad to here gareth has passed away he will be sadley missed another one dies an the government couldnt care or less

I am also very sorry to hear that Gareth has died, my feelings of sympathy for his family and all those who knew him, its sad news.

Helen

I worked with Gareth at ABplus in Birmingham for 3 years and was always astounded by his passion, his caring nature, generosity and complete disregard for political correctness. Last Wednesday evening I went to see Arcade Fire with him here in Birmingham, and could never have imagined that I would be writing this. He was so happy to be going out to Spain to see his family, and was really looking forward to setting foot in Paco's bar. 

Gareth made a big impact on a lot of people's lives at ABplus and believed in the ability of people to change their lives for the better. Gareth, you were an inspiration, a joy to work with, a good friend and I will miss you. I hope you are at peace with your big brother.

Sending my condolences to the Lewis family at this sad time.

Jackie Moore

I too had the privilege of working with Gareth on several occasions.

The first time I met him was at a meeting for parents with children who had haemophilia. Gareth had been invited to speak about his experience of living with haemophilia and I was there as a mum. He was perfect and pitched it just right. Measured, brave and funny. He told us all about his HIV and his attitude was, if others had a problem with his status then that was their problem. Given we were a group of young mums at a time when ignorance about HIV was rife this was a high risk strategy. He was impressive, broke down barriers and educated us.

The next time we came into contact was when we started to campaign for recombinant treatment in wales. Gareth took us under his reigns. He directed and motivated us and then let us get on with it. This must have been a very difficult time for him as I later learnt he had just lost his closest friend, Paul Jenkins. Knowing how I feel today I just don't know how he managed it.

Later I received an invite to the opening of the Birchgrove Wales office in Cardiff. Yes here was Gareth, Chair of Birchgrove and Birchgrove Wales at the helm again. He brought people together in way noone else could.

The last time I worked with Gareth was another campaign, this time for a new haemophilia centre in Cardiff. During this time he was determined to bring together people with haemophilia, hiv, hcv, von willebrands, mothers and fathers of children with haemophilia together in one group. And so haemophilia wales was born with the commitee made up of all these groups. Gareth drove us with his passion, experience and sheer blood hard work. At times he was so ill I didn't think he would survive, but he was always happy to prove us wrong and we were always happy to have him back.

None of the above would have happened had it not been for Gareth Lewis. He drove it all with his guts and determination, his drive and his perserverance.

Gareth was my best friend and I simply cannot begin to imagine a life without him.

A little funny to end which is how he's like it. As Jackie mentioned earlier Gareth had gone to see Arcade Fire in Brum on Wednesday. On Thursday, I had a spare ticket for Arcade Fire in Cardiff and went along with Gareth. Then on Friday he went off to Spain. What a boy x

oh my god,   my darling Gareth,  how on earth can we express our love and our devotion that we had for you. can,t take it in we love you so much who will i talk to every wendsday night when we would put the world to rights,  and talk about the people that we love and miss so much, and now i have to put you,re name to our memories, why you my beautiful man ,who i have always called you my brother, i know that Hayden would have been waiting for you and little colin can now treat you to that meal he promised you .but my darling i didn,t want those things for you yet. going to miss you with all our hearts, could write a book of all the things that we,ve been through together ,but what are words when hearts are broken ,   god bless you our special man love you forever and a day        night night sleep tight    colin janet  xxxxx

If anyone wishes to send a card or letter to Gareth's family, please e-mail me if you don't have an address as I have been given one where all messages of condolence can be sent.

Sue

suethreakall@hotmail.co.uk

My thoughts are with the Lewis family at this time of such very sad and tragic loss.

  Funeral Details

I have been given the following details by Gareth's family:

Because of the added distress that would be caused by arranging for repatriation of Gareth's body - which I believe would probably take weeks at this time of year - his family have decided that he will be cremated in Spain.  This will be followed by some kind of memorial service in the UK after Christmas.

Gareth's family are conscious that as well as a flight there is also a journey from the airport of approximately one and a half hours.  They have assured me that they do not expect people to come, although any that do will be welcomed.

Date, Time & Venue:

If anyone wishes to travel to Spain for the cremation, please e-mail me and I will arrange for further details to be sent to you. Otherwise, details of the memorial service will be put on the websites in the New Year.

To ensure that we are all able to play a small part in the service, we are arranging for flowers to be sent, along with a message from the committee on behalf of  of the contaminated blood community.   We felt this would be an appropriate thing to do. I will post details of the flowers and our message later on.

Sue

 Flowers

We have ordered a simple arrangement of twelve red roses to be sent to the crematorium in Spain.  The message reads as follows:

A very special man, campaigner, leader, and friend.

It’s time for you to rest now, but we will never forget you and will carry on with the work you started.

Sue, Mark, Mike, Bruce, Kate, Glenn and Richard

On behalf of the Contaminated Blood Community.

That's a wonderful verse Sue, many thanks for arranging this.

Glenn

Just to let you all know that I had a text from Bev, Gareth's sister, saying that the flowers arrived, and thanking us.

Sue

grest verse sue lots of sentiment and to the point

if you need any money to help with the costs count me in..

you have my e-mail address please let me know if i can assist

cheers

Thank very much for the offer, lovatscout.  I think that on this occasion we will be able to cover the cost within the committee, but it's very kind of you.

Sue

A memorial service for Gareth will be held on Friday 25th February at 2.00 pm at the All nations Centre, Cardiff.  Further details and a map, etc, will follow closer to the date.

Sue

With regards to our friend and fellow campaigner’s memorial service on the 25^th February I am hoping to attend this service,

I have a 7 seated people carrier and will be traveling from Kent on the following roads

M26 , M25 , M3, J3 to M4,  J10 then onto M4 until Cardiff.

I don’t mind a small diversion if anyone would like a lift I would only be too happy to help.

At this point I am not too sure if I will be coming back the same day or sleeping over in a B&B

If there is time on way back I would like to drop in and see birchgrove depending on weather.

Colin

 Gareth’s Memorial Service Details

Date:      Friday 25^th February

Time:     2.00 pm

Venue:   The All Nations Centre, Sachville Ave, Cardiff CF14 3NY

Directions:            http://www.allnationscentre.com/PDFs/Location.pdf

Further Details:   http://www.allnationscentre.com/Location.htm

 Gareth’s family have requested that people arrive a little early if possible, in order to mingle and then get seated.

Just a reminder about the memorial service for Gareth on Friday (See previous post for full details).

If anyone in the Birmingham area would like to go but has transport problems... 

...there's a coach leaving from AB plus in Brum at 10:30 friday morning with a few seats left on it. 

Contact me for further details.

Sue

suethreakall@hotmail.co.uk

07540 092 640

 For those of you who weren't able to attend Gareth's memorial service yesterday, I thought I'd just post to say that it went really well and that he would have loved it - if you know what I mean...

Here's a link to the video that was shown at the end of the service.  If you haven't got a Facebook account you may not be able to open it, but I'm sure Richard will do something clever with it soon to ensure that it's accessible for everyone.

Sue

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=10150148304655955&comments

Here :

Gareth - All Nations Church, Cardiff - Friday 25th February 2011

 Please see atached for a copy of the memorial piece about Gareth that was printed in the Spring edition of the Haemophilia Society magazine, HQ.

Sue

Gareth would have been 53 today.  A sad reminder of how fragile it all is.

Sue

Gareth Lewis Slideshow

Some of us will light sky lanterns around 9pm tonight and send Gareth our love on his birthday.

Please feel free to join us.

jan

xx