On Monday we had to say goodbye to our very special Dave, it was an extremely difficult day for everyone who loved him but seeing so many of his family, friends, colleagues and pupils helped to ease the pain of the day. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came to pay their respects and say goodbye to Dave, particularly those of you who travelled far and wide, and especially if you came all the way from Spain!
It was lovely seeing so many familiar faces from all the various stages of David’s life. We are only sorry that we didn’t get the chance to speak to everyone personally on the day to thank them for coming, so we would like to take this opportunity to apologise and reiterate how grateful we were for so many people attending to pay their respects.
We would also like to thank those of you who took part in the service, including the 4 bearers; Chris, Ricardo, Alan and Pat, as well as the school for providing such a fitting tribute from the pupils and the additional readings by Kate Ballard and Christine Becker.
We have had an amazing response to both Dave’s Just Giving page and those purchasing the World Wednesday book. For those of you who would still like to donate, or buy a book, please go to:
http://www.justgiving.com/daveadamsontribute
or
As we know so many people read this blog and have been touched by Dave and his battle against leukaemia, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight the Anthony Nolan Register to you all. This is a register for people aged between 16-30 to sign up to be on the stem cell/bone marrow donor register. Dave’s sister, Katie, gave him a stem cell transplant in 2010 and without this he may not have been able to fight for as long as he did. Many people hold common misconceptions about being a stem cell or bone marrow donor, but most of these are untrue, and actually the process is quite simple, relatively painless and extremely rewarding. As a family who has lost someone so special to this horrible disease, we would like to encourage anyone who is eligible to join the register. We have included the link below:
http://www.anthonynolan.org/What-you-can-do/save-a-life.aspx
Nothing can take away the pain of losing David and the sadness of losing him so young, he will always be our little lad and no words can ever express how much we loved him and will miss him. However, we feel that we all gave him the send off that he deserved and you all made this possible. This blog has helped both Dave, us and all of its followers over the last 3 years and we would like to keep this as a place for us to all share and talk about our happy and funny memories of Dave.
Keep Calm And Chemo On 
For those of you who couldn’t attend the funeral, I wanted to share my goodbye speech (also known as a eulogy) to my big brother:
“When David, Dave, Daveo, Mr Adamson or whatever you called him was very young, we were inseparable; he was my big brother, and he took that job very seriously. At that age, we were each other’s best friend; we were both shy, nervous and always worried about what other kids would think of us. We then started to grow up a bit, and my big brother turned into a teenage boy… and his little sister began to annoy him. He was the kind of teenage boy who would find it hilariously funny to climb the roof of our house with our cousin and launch himself onto the conservatory to scare the living daylights of out me and my friends.
Being brother and sister, everything always needed to be ‘fair’, so we would always have to take things in turns; my turn in the front of the car on the way to school, or my turn to watch TV. Now my brother was rather clever, on a night we would sometimes arrange to each watch alternate programmes. So my programme, his programme, then mine etc etc. So, I would choose something naff like ‘Sister Sister’, half an hour – done. Dave, on the other hand would choose cricket, which seemed to last a week! His sheer love and dedication for sport only grew and led to a lot of you here today sharing many great memories watching some sort of sport with Dave; Leeds Rhinos, England, Manchester United, Preston North End, cycling, and the ultimate, the Olympics.
No matter how much we may have argued when we were growing up, Christmas was when all the arguments stopped. We would always have our Christmas Eve meal, traditional roast ham. We all loved it, including Dave, no matter what he said. Then one Christmas he comes home after living in London for just one year and all of a sudden he’s always hated the ham, and never eaten it. Instead he suggests we have a ‘mezze’, at which point we all just looked at each other as if to say ‘what the heck is a mezze?!’. Every year without fail ‘Santa’ would leave our stockings outside our bedroom door, even last year. As we got older and had our phones, Dave would be the first to text me saying ‘Are you awake yet?’ and I’d be like ‘yeah, can I come through?’. So off I’d trot at 6 in the morning, picking up my stocking on the way and go and sit with him opening our stockings and we’d be laughing at Mum for forgetting something, leaving price tags on or giving me something that was meant for Dave! We’d then have to wait for about 2 hours until we were allowed to wake up our parents and Dave would always make sure he brought them a cup of tea. We would all then go through to the living room and I would always have a huge pile of presents, whereas Dave would have a tiny pile as he would have already received his Christmas presents in June!
The thing about my brother is that he always had to have the best; look the best and be the best. He was a self-confessed snob. Shirts couldn’t cost under £50 and he would always walk past the living room window checking himself out making sure he looked ok, he always had to have the best bike, best and most difficult to find food, newest gadgets – but never anything that everyone else had. He always had to be different, to the point of stubbornness. I will never forget when England were kicked out of the world cup in 2006 by Portugal and the entire of the country hated Christiano Ronaldo for ‘that wink’. Well, that night, typical Dave decided to go on a night out in his Portuguese football top, with Ronaldo on the back.
I think it’s true to say that there was nothing Dave hated more than letting people down, and he would always try his best keep everyone happy – even if he couldn’t manage it first time! Usually, there was not much that cheeky grin and a high five couldn’t fix! Hearing about how much of an amazing teacher he has become, has I have to admit, been a bit of a shock! You see, Dave and school weren’t exactly a match made in heaven. I’ll always remember when he was doing his A-levels and he was off school on ‘study leave’, when Mum got a call at work from school asking where Dave had been all week. Mum quite innocently replied ‘well he’s on study leave’… of course there was no study leave and he was just at home playing on Championship Manager! And interestingly, that call came from his Maths teacher!
I guess you could say that Dave’s life was quite ironic; he spent most of his life not interested in the things that most people here know him to love, namely school and qualifications, as his sixth form consisted of a constant round of resists, which also extended to his university life. Like most people here, it took him a while to find what it was that he was really passionate about and he had a bit of a meandering journey just to get there, and it was perhaps his lack of interest at school that made him dedicate his life to making maths fun, whether that was for the pupils, blog readers or friends and family. The first time I ever knew him to ‘teach’ was actually with me when I sat my A-level Maths exam. He spent hours with me trying to help me understand and feel confident. It wasn’t until years later that he decided to be a Maths teacher, and as soon as he told me he had decided to change his career path, I knew it made sense, and I was so proud this January when he called me up to tell me he had been promoted to Head of Maths at St. Michael’s, even if he did spend the first 10 minutes pretending he didn’t get the job! I thought it was quite fitting that the very last conversation we had with him was an impromptu maths lesson on percentages in his hospital bed.
His battle with leukaemia became a significant part of his life; one that changed him, but made us all immensely proud. His courage, determination and sheer stubbornness has been an inspiration to many, including those of us who are not easily moved! Like everything else in life, he never let it beat his spirit, and his positivity and humour stayed strong until the end; no matter what he went through. With each hurdle, he would positively ask one question: what do we do next? He didn’t complain, and he simply saw it as his “test in life”. Dave once humbly suggested that the stat: “one in three people suffer from cancer in their lifetime” meant that he had saved two other people that he loved. Always the mathematician, he then fiddled the stats for each time he relapsed and insisted he had saved six!
I keep thinking about how we will carry on, and then I look at all of the people here today; the same people who loved my brother, those who laughed with him, worked with him, drank with him and the special few who helped him. You are the people who always ensured he was loved, happy and not alone in his fight. I look at you all, and knowing the legacy my brother has left behind, I have hope. Hope that he will never be forgotten and that actually he’s not gone at all. From now on, our lives will never quite be the same, but it is up to us to now to make David proud by living our lives in the same positive and happy way that he lived his, and to quote Dave himself ‘be unstoppable’.
Dave, words cannot do justice to how much we all love and will miss you, but for now I will just say ‘Sleep well big grasshopper’ and I hope you’re managing to cause a bit of mischief up there too!”
Katie, thank you. Thank you from all of us who were just too far away (in distance) or in too remote or unfriendly a place to be able to be with you all in person on Monday. With love, Judy
Hi Katie
Your goodbye speech was completely brilliant, you must have rehearsed it so many times not to cry yourself all the way through it, you certainly had most of us in tears!
Dave will have been proud of me this weekend, I wore sunscreen 🙂
I was thinking of you all on Monday and just knew that Daves send off would have been amazing!
Katie…you obviously have the same courageous, strong and inspirational personality as your brother; what an amazing speech!
Xxxxx
Hi Katie, Jan and Dick, David will be immensely proud of your speech and what a wonderful impact he has had on all of your lives, – the love shines through every line. He will never be forgotten. lots of love Jackie and Stevexxx
It was a lovely day and us stokies were really happy to be there to share with you and give him such a wonderful send off, although its not really a good bye. He will always be in our memories pushing us to achieve great things. Dave was a huge inspiration when I decided to become a teacher and he will always motivate me to do well.
I passed year two Dave and got an awesome mark for my maths exam 🙂 i just want to say thank you for supporting me along the way.
You had us laughing Monday over a drink at our clapping game we play and how you just couldn’t get the rhythm no matter how many times we went over it haha. You made up for it though by being a good host when we stayed 🙂 having a cuppa brought to us all in bed was just what we needed.
Get practicing that clapping game 😀
Xxxx
It really was a wonderful tribute to David’s amazing life. Thank you – he is a very special person who touched a lot of lives
xx
Katie, Jan, Dick and all the family,
Dave was one almighty person, he touched many people whether they were family, friends, colleagues and even strangers, through his blogs. Believe us when we say Dave’s memory will live on for an extremely long time. It couldn’t be more obvious how truly loved he was. You know Katie the speech you gave was wonderful and the memories of the good times and the bad times were funny, quirky and tear jerking all at the same time, but the one thing we can assure is over time the sadness and rawness of the present time will become a little easier and in the future each time you think of David their will be a smile, a laugh and always a happy memory there. There is also a whole load of support out there for all your family from others and Dave will be looking down right know and will be soooooooooooooooooo proud of you all. He was such a special person, but you all are a special family too. Take care, Shirley and Paul xxx
Well David you certainly had a “right royal send off” That Crematorium was filled with so much love for you and also from loads more people who were all thinking of you at 3.15. We were and are so proud of you and always will be. Surely this is not the final goodbye – one day we will meet again and it might become clear why you were so cruelly taken from us. We will love & miss you for ever. Nanny & Papa xxx
Mr Adamson.. Guess what I’ve finally got? My Rubik cube!! You know that one you promised me;) Well yeah. Your Mum kindly sent one to the school for me. Because she knew I wanted one. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it. It’s tricky!! And there was me saying ‘yeah I can do that no trouble’ We had our year11 prom yesterday. You should of been there 😦 Showing us all your good moves. I just need you for one more thing now. Shinning down when I collect them GCSE results in August. Think you can do that for me? Deal!!!! Miss you Sir. Cass ❤
Let us know how you do with your GCSE results in August, we wish you all the luck in the world
Thank-you very much!! That means allot. 🙂
Hey cassie, I’m glad you got your rubix cube, I have one as well.. Never before have I been able to do it and Dave tried to teach me at Christmas but I was fairly rubbish, definitely have to try harder!
I’m sure you’ll do great in your exams… And when you do, you can be proud that you did it first time… Unlike your maths teacher! (Sorry Dave, can never resist a dig here and there!)
He will be standing there with you, something managed to get me through the eulogy last week, and part of me thinks that was his doing, so just keep thinking of him and you’ll be ‘unstoppable’! Xx
Hiya Kate. He had a lovely send off. Your speech was beautiful no words can sum up how proud he would have been. He deserved a good send off and that’s what he got. Everyone came together. (Something he would of loved) I finally did get my cube;). I look at it and wonder how people do them, its pretty confusing isn’t it? And I sat and said to Mr Adamson ‘I can do that easily!!’ But look at me struggling with it haha. Results day is on the 22nd of August. 9.00am until 12.00. Pretty scary eh? But Mr Adamson will be there. He’ll be standing with everyone. I’ll never forget his words and them brown shoes;) He’s taught me so much especially ‘NEVER give up’ ❤
Mr Adamson Today I Done Something I’ve Never Done Before. ‘I Ran For Ages’ Well it seemed like for ever. I completed ‘Race For Life’ in 45 minutes. St Michaels all came together and all done you proud. We all kicked cancers butt!!! You know the way I normally run for your maths lessons. Well that’s how I ran today well similar;). Hope you looked down and laughed while I was sweating my face off;). Miss you Sir ❤
Well done Cassie, that’s brilliant! Especially in that heat! He would have been really proud, I’m sure he is watching down on us as we had a really good sporting weekend with the Lions rugby team winning plus Andy Murray winning the tennis. Sadly his beloved Leeds Rhinos were beaten by one point but they played well so can’t complain there!
Hope you’ve cracked the rubik cube I don’t think Katie has yet! Also good luck on your maths exam but if you’ve already done it i hope it went well and fingers crossed you get the result you deserve. Will be thinking of you on the 22nd of August .
We miss him very much too
Take care xxx
(Mr Adamson’s Mum)
Hello. Its really nice to hear from you. I have completed my maths GCSE. I will be collecting my results on the 22nd of August. I will be resitting my maths next year though come September. (Because I’ve only been taught to aim for the best) and that’s what I shall do. He would have had one fat cheeky grin on he’s face on Sunday. We all done so well. The heat was horribly stupid. But we all managed to get through it thinking of him<3. He's missed by each and every one of us so much. An ice cream cooled us down after the race though. I've not managed to crack the rubik cube yet. But I'm working on that. (Its so hard) The summer holidays are soon approaching. Cass xxx
What a fantastic speech Katie, I don’t know how you managed to do it…. your strength is amazing. It’s so lovely to read the messages from David’s students, its clear how much he meant to them and what a fantastic teacher he was. I was re-reading the message from one of the Rhinos players about the analogy of the aeroplanes leaving vapour trails and how people don’t always see the impact that they leave behind them. I think David is the perfect example of this.
Thinking of you all.
Claire Kok x x
Mr Adamson. I’ve just come out of Wimpy. Your funeral song. ‘Give me strength’ was played. I could of sat and cried while looking at my sausages. Your missed so dam much by everyone.. The weather is beautiful!! You would of loved it. Riding to school on your bike and sweating;). Loved telling us all in maths how you had a shower in the pe department. RIP Sir<3. Cass!!
Hi Cassie, you are so right he would be loving this weather and would have been out training for the next bikeathon on his bike! We miss him so so much every day and lots of things remind us of him all the time, the song sunscreen came on the radio today while I was driving and it made me cry but then I could hear him telling me to pull myself together before I crashed or knocked someone down!
Hope you have a fantastic summer in the sunshine and I’m sure he will be smiling down on us all 🙂
Xxxxx
Hello. He sure would have told you to dry your tears. He didn’t like seeing anyone upset. The weather is beautiful isn’t it? He would have loved the sun and riding to school on his bike can’t forget using the PE departments shower;). We have loads of new maths teachers coming into the school come September as loads of maths staff are leaving. Its still never going to be the same without him :(. Its funny how you notice the small things isn’t it? I miss him so much the chats the smile just him in general I guess. But everyone’s keeping it together just because we all know he would have wanted us smiling. But it still doesn’t make sense how a man of he’s age could be grabbed of he’s life. Are you still coming to St Mikes in Sept? You take care. Xx
Hi Cass, yes we will certainly be there! Enjoy your summer hols, look forward to seeing you in September xxxx
I will look forward to seeing you all in September. It will be nice for you to all see the school your son worked in. I’ve managed to crack the ‘Rubik’ cube. Bet Mr Adamson would be proud;). He’d give me a massive high5. Xx
Well done you! Yes he would be proud! See you in September xxx
Thinking about you all tomorrow getting your results – hope that Mr. Adamson has been watching over you and pulling a few strings so that you all have happy results. Best of luck to you all. .david’s Nanny & Papa.