A tribute

The death of someone you have known is always a shock and on Saturday, I came into such sad news.

Ron Espin was a leader with the Boys Brigade at my home church in Rushden, including at the Girls and Boys Brigades' summer camp (I'll never forget his rendition of 'eating people is wrong') and also more importantly from the point of view of this blog, with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award - Expedition section. Ron was part of the team of leaders that got me and my friends through, booking the campsites, driving us up and down the country, being there at checkpoints and generally chivvying us along, usually with a liberal dose of very dry humour.

These past couple of days, when I have sat down to planning, to drawing maps and putting together kit lists and food plans, I've been thinking back to the first time I did all this, over 20 years ago, for my Bronze, Silver and Gold awards, all completed successfully - thanks to the leaders such as him that put the time and effort into helping us all.

Thanks Ron.