Of my many good memories of Jeremy, one stands out best for showing his fun-loving and happy-go-lucky character. It was on a Synergy week away at Soul Survivor. For those who don't know, Soul Survivor is a Christian camping retreat in Shepton Mallet in Somerset aimed at teenagers. A fair number of us from our youth club usually went and had a fantastic time. On this particular occasion we were making our way to the daily afternoon meeting in the big tent. A small group of us were lagging behind a little, the others having left a few minutes before, and so we were briskly walking across the field. At one point we passed by a couple of young lads who were kicking a football between them when, suddenly, one of them mishit the ball and it came heading in our direction. Now, despite cricket being his sporting forte, Jeremy, always eager to help out and never likely to back away from a little fun, dutifully started running towards the wayward ball, squaring up his shot as he went. At this point I should probably point out that - as is typical of British weather in August normally and even more so when you happen to be camping - it had recently been raining and the grassy field we were walking across was slightly wet and muddy... and slippery! Kicking foot raised and ready to make contact, Jeremy swung his leg forward with great enthusiasm. So great, in fact, that thanks to the slippy conditions and the force of his momentum, his standing leg went shooting out from beneath him also and with a splat he landed on his back! In his defence, he did hit the football, but not quite as hard as was needed and, as if mocking him, it lamely rolled a few yards before coming to a stop, nowhere near either of its owners. Lying on his now rather muddy back, a group of his friends and the two young boys looking on and doubling over, his pride having taken a bit of a slip (pun intended), did Jeremy groan? Or get embarrassed? Did he blame the weather for his misfortune? No. He laughed. He laughed at what had happened, at himself, at the sight of all of us laughing too. He just laughed, picked himself up, and carried on. A funny anecdote which in real time lasted only a few seconds, but the impression of it, for me, will last a lifetime. Sometimes in life we fall down for various reasons; sometimes people laugh at us, for good or bad reasons; and sometimes we run headlong into things expecting an easy success and instead end up down in the dirt. What can we do? Laugh, pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off and keep going. Thanks for the memories, Jem x