I would now like to explain the full reason as to why me and my dad Tom @M1EYP’s trip to GM was postponed from the last week of May until next week. As you all know already, parts of our reason for postponing our GM/SS trip was due to me being poorly with COVID19 the week before and also the horrible wx in GM/SS on the last week of May also. These however were not the main reasons for why we had to postpone our GM/SS trip though, my uncle (my dad Tom M1EYP’s brother) was poorly with cancer and just before we were due to travel to GM/SS, my uncle felt very poorly and that was our main reason for postponing the GM/SS trip. Soon afterwards though, my uncle started to feel better though. We knew however that my uncle’s cancer was terminal as he received a 6 to 9 month prognosis in August 2023, but due to my uncle’s positive attitude about this and being open about this all to his family and friends, he was able to live beyond the 6 to 9 month prognosis. More recently, my uncle was not feeling as poorly as to what he has been earlier this year, and both me and my dad told my uncle the dates that we’d now be in GM/SS and we told him that if he was feeling very poorly before our trip that we would postpone again. However, my uncle told me and my dad this time that we were to go ahead with the GM/SS trip even if he was feeling very poorly because he had loads of support from his wider family and from his friends as well. However on Wednesday 7th August (5 days ago), my uncle unexpectedly sadly passed away and this was a shock to us all. My uncle was only 51 when he sadly passed away, but he had a very great life and I was proud to have him as both my uncle and my godfather as well.
Me and my dad Tom M1EYP will still be going ahead with the GM/SS trip next week because my uncle told everyone that no one was to cancel their plans at all following his death. Our SOTA activation plans remain the same as my above post and the alerts that I posted as well. However, plans could change depending on the wx (long term forecast looks to be unsettled at present) and energy levels also. We are hoping to activate Scaw’d Fell GM/SS-142 and Croft Head GM/SS-100 as a linear walk if Andy @MM0FMF, Jack @GM4COX or Paul @W6PNG/M0SNA would like to join us as that there is at least one car at both ends of the walk, we are planning to activate both these SOTA summits on Tuesday 20th August, but this could change depending on wx and peoples availability as well.
Jimmy M0HGY