Every time I spoke to Gary he was always smiling.   His quiet, positive manner always contributed to the conversation. He led a conversation. Fondest memories.

 

Gary was a true example of the citizenship model, which is about having a good life.  He had a wife, lots of friends and activities, choices he made for himself, several paid jobs and volunteering roles and a true purpose. He was central to lots of pieces of work and sharing his life with his wife. They had their own home and the support they needed around them. He helped me understand good communication and support for people with lived experience. His kindness, understanding, and passion for inclusion shone through, and he had the most wicked sense of humour. He just cared! I really miss him.

 

I will be forever grateful to Gary. Gary interviewed me in the summer of 2017 and I was successful and offered the job at Inclusion North. Gary knew so much and was an amazing self-advocate, and he supported other people well. What always inspired me about Gary was his commitment to Inclusion North and the lives of people with a learning disability.  But more than that his awareness and understanding of Human Rights – particularly about The Right to Marry and Found a Family.  Gary was happily married and took an active role in our short presentation in Preston about the reproduction rights of people with a learning disability. Gary was keen to ensure people had access to good information that was easy to understand, and Gary always had some good examples to share with everyone.  Gary lived independently with his wife and really showed that people with a learning disability could have choice and control over the way they wanted to live their lives.

 

He just seemed to be a genuinely nice bloke. That sounds like it’s not that special, but it really is. Genuinely nice people don’t come along nearly often enough! He was so friendly and able to really make people feel comfortable with him. I liked talking to him – his warmth really came through every time I met him.

 

I first met Gary about 10 years ago when I first joined the Advisory Council. Since then, we formed a very strong friendship and worked together many times on different projects with the Advisory Council. I had the pleasure of supporting Gary many times at meetings during lockdown where we became known as G&T, something which Gary himself came up with and definitely broke the ice when he introduced us both 😊I also had the pleasure of supporting Gary whilst he attended the ‘Bringing Change to the Board’ course which he thoroughly enjoyed and which led to him becoming a Director for Inclusion North, something he was extremely proud of. Working with him was a pleasure and a privilege that has given me many happy memories of his unique personality. He had a brilliant sense of humour. He often phoned me to gloat if Sunderland got beat, but equally used to phone to say well done if Sunderland did well, unless it was against Hull of course 😊

 

Gary was truly the face of inclusivity. He was a caring and helpful person. He embodied all the values of Inclusion North. We met on the Advisory Council. He was a great person to be co-chair with. He was a truly fine advocate, Advisory Council member and Director.

 

Gary really had all of the things that you hope for in the people you work with. He was well-informed, up to date, well-prepared, full of ideas, good at seeing possible connections, enthusiastic and passionate. I remember him asking in one meeting to share a news clip about someone sent to a residential setting out of their area where they experienced abusive treatment. It really forcefully brought home what this means for people, far better than any lengthy discussion could have done. And last, but far from least, he had a warm and humorous personality. Due to Covid I never met Gary face to face.  But because of the number of meetings and sharing of experiences, I feel that I knew him quite well.   I will certainly miss him a lot.

 

Gary had an amazing memory. He would ring me and remind me that our membership day, which we had once every 3 years, was due. He rang when there was a story on the news that impacted on learning disabled people. He would check in with me about the agenda for the Board meetings to make sure I had remembered everything. He was really proud of the work he did with inclusion North.