Class of 82 Reunion

It was great to be Gary's friend because he was always right and knew mostly everything about anything so he had the answer to most queries. This obviously saved on textbooks when we were studying and was invaluable in any bar room discussion.

Although perhaps a reluctant scholar and ultimately perhaps a reluctant doctor this didn't affect his 'expert' status. This always made him excellent entertainment to be with, especially when he argued with e.g. Mr Fleming!

His physical prowess was without doubt; unlike his eyesight. I could never understand why going on the back of his Triumph Bonnie 750 was so hairy until I realised he couldn't see the blackboard clearly from the back row of the lecture theatre!

Gary was a local lad from Chopwell and was proud of his family.

Yes he was a certified hard drinking backrow boy as well as being a top athlete; rugby as a student and latterly mountaineering, extreme skiing and road cycling. He died last year hit by a car whilst out training on his bike.

Gary still owes me a pint!!

Regards Julian Bromly

I didn’t know Nicky until the final year, the fairly rigid alphabetical nature of placements In Newcastle not tending to mix us up until then. In the first weeks of final year the two of us were to do psychiatry and surgery together virtually back to back. Nicky wanted to be an Anaesthetist, and both did her training and practised as a consultant on the South Coast .She married Rob Richards an Orthopaedic surgeon, and had five children. She was one of the most organised and efficient people I have known, and if anybody was going to be able to balance a career and having a large family it was her. Nicky got it right about what she had said she wanted from life. Nicky sadly died on 30th August 2010 from breast cancer. She had triple-negative disease which spread widely and there was little that could really help her.

Graham Horsman

I want to say thank you for the beautiful flowers that you sent to mark the sad news of Kate’s passing. While we were on holiday in Tasmania at the beginning of the year we had decided that we would make an extra visit to the old country this year. We were coming to Europe in May to support my PhD student when she defended her thesis in Maastricht but we thought it would be really nice to get to the reunion in September as well because we enjoyed the 2012 one so much. Not a fortnight after that discussion, Kate had her first symptoms of colon cancer. A week later, the diagnosis of a sigmoid primary with liver and lung metastases was made. There was never any good news after that as it proved resistant to every treatment thrown at it and Kate just got steadily sicker. We didn’t even get to make one trip to the UK for Kate to say goodbye to family and friends.

Kate really flourished as a doctor in the more than 20 years since we moved to Australia and had become quite a “mover and shaker” in General Practice within the University of Queensland, GP Training Queensland, Metro South Health and Kidney Health Australia. It was no surprise that there was a huge turnout for Kate’s funeral with standing room only at the back.

I can say that 2017 has been a really awful year but I have been supported by the kindness of friends and family which has made things a little easier.

Well done for organizing the reunion which I heard was a great success. If you can face doing another in 2022, I hope to be there.

Kind regards,

Jon

23/10/2017

Nigel Perks was a huge part of my social life during our undergraduate years. Our little hard core late night lock in club at the Post Office pub was introduced to a very dubious cast of local characters, who Nigel somehow knew and was happy to share with us, to our everlasting educational benefit. We even visited some of these reprobates in later years when they ended up as patients at the RVI. Nigel was a connector, a social enabler, and in all the time I knew him, his dial was always turned up to 11. I spent a year flat sharing with Nigel after graduation, in that time when we worked harder than we ever have since and played even harder. Our little flat in Fenham was frequently party central after pub closing time. It was exhilarating, and exactly what we needed at that time. 

We continued our connection while we all remained in Newcastle. Nigel and Fiona got on famously, and he was one of the ushers at our wedding in 1985. Nigel delivered our firstborn child into the world. Mr Davidson performed Fiona’s emergency section at PMMH in October 1987, but it was his assistant Nigel who first held our son.  Liam has just turned 35….   

We sadly saw less of Nigel when he moved south to further his training, and we concentrated on our growing family and work. Our last big hurrah was at Stuart Marsden’s stag weekend in Dublin. Most of the stags returned home in very poor shape, realising that we could no longer party in the same way as we had as students. Nigel however took the weekend in his stride, and was the life of the party, as ever. That that was the last time we were together.  I unfortunately missed the one class of 82 reunion he attended. Nigel is a huge loss to our very special cohort, and I am very saddened by his passing. 

Alan Coulthard

In final year Nigel invited Alison, Alan Coulthard and me down to Middlesbrough for a weekend party at one of his neighbours on the very posh street on which his parent’s house was situated. The party house was interior designed in an unusual way, including plaster Harrods Greek pillars in the front room, and other somewhat unnecessarily ornate flourishes. The host was younger than us and not academic, but his parents had made a fortune from a milk round. He provided copious decent drinks but then regaled us very poor students with stories of first-class travel to the Monaco Grand Prix and other markers of wealth, which annoyed Alan, who got on his working-class lad made good through own effort high horse, roundly insulted the host and then fell asleep under a (very nice) coffee table. Nigel seemed amused and unperturbed and in fact I think he had anticipated events and brought us for this very purpose!

Nick Smith

I still remember meeting Nigel for the first time when he burst into the North East as if someone from another planet. I was struck by his eloquence and style which was so different to most of the other medics at the time. I have lovely memories of being with him in the Lake District camping and staying at Rob Cruikshank’s cottage, lying in front of the fire to try and get warm and debating the likelihood of it being haunted. He was an excellent raconteur and I still remember his claim to fame regarding the topless invader of a major rugby match. One of the highlights of reunion 2012 was sitting next to him at dinner with non- stop laughing. We were meant to arrange to meet in London, but we never got round to it - I am so sad that I left it too late, and I won’t meet this amazing eccentric kind man again. 

Karen Rogstad

Nigel, Chris, and I shared a flat for three years in Benwell when we were students together. We had great times and there are many memories and stories from that time. There was much socialising, often culminating in a lock in at the Post Office pub back room (The pub is long gone and is now a night club). Then back to the flat to drink some more, listen to music and play stud poker (10p maximum stake). This is what we were doing one night early in our time together, when there was a knock on the door and Nigel went down to answer it. As usual in the flat he was wearing his silk smoking jacket, a cravat and porting a cigarette holder. After a few minutes he came back upstairs and said it was the rather large Geordie neighbour, but he couldn't understand a word he was saying so he had come to fetch me to 'translate'. I went down to talk to him. He said 'Howay lads turn the music doon. The walls are bouncing, and the bairns cannot sleep'. This became a catch phrase between the three of us; ‘The walls are bouncing, and the bairns cannot sleep'. It was a happy time in our lives. There have been many pretenders to title of life and soul of the party, but it belonged to Nigel. Sadly, he has gone, in many ways it is amazing that he lasted so long. Tanqueray Gin will be announcing a profit warning.

Julian Bromley

Nigel was a huge part of the fun of just being alive for me and so many he got close to, and we were lucky to know him. Booze, fags and irreverence with a great wit made him a magnet Remembering fondly late nights with him blowing Bowie through speakers and at our wedding somehow persuading a team of guests to lift our taxi completely off the ground to prevent us leaving. Sorting the taxi driver’s annoyance with a few sharp quips. I saw less and less of him and eventually he seemed to disappear into a different world - and I missed him I miss him more now, but I am much better for having known him

Ian Laidlaw