The last two days have been a very sad time for both me personally and this site.
For those who are not already aware, our dear friend and colleague as a moderator on here for the past ten years Kevin Wheeldon sadly passed away on Sunday evening after being taken ill last Tuesday.
Everyone who met him will understand just how much fun he was to be around and how much of a Ford enthusiast he was as well as a dedicated family man. From first meeting him in July 2006 when he came to the first FFST holiday down in Newquay, it was nothing but a pleasure knowing him. So many laughs over the years! From him asking me to up the pace on the way down to Newquay - having just met him I'd been sticking to the speed limit rigidly - to the extent I sailed past the campsite by 20 miles, flying round the country lanes in France, and then him having us in fits of tears at one of the Christmas events when he was visibly demonstrating how much he hated mince pies.
You'll be sadly missed fella. Our thoughts and wishes are with his wife Julie and daughter Sarah.
Thanks for putting a post up Chris. I haven't had the heart or soul to do it.
From the moment Julie contacted me on Monday morning to let me know Kev had pass away I was totally devastated. I was only talking about organising to see him in a couple of weekends time. It's such a shock! He was 52 years of age and had so much still left to do, to see and experience. Taken much too early.
I remember meeting Kevin when I was a young, slightly over confident, care free 20 year old. I had everything to live for and nothing to worry about. Not a single time did Kev ever look down on me or treat me any different to anyone else. Kevin had the latest model hot hatch Fiesta and I was super jealous! To me he was seriously cool. When I found out he had two... one for Julie his wife... well... A fans perfect driveway!
We went to many car shows, Newquay and the highlight was driving to Alicate, Spain in convoy. I will never forget the times we talked about driving through the forest in the South of France at speed. We could talk about this again and again for hours. It will live on with me forever! Come Sun, Rain, Wind or Snow Kev was there!
Kevin always had us in stitches with his laugh, it was simply contagious. There was never a dull moment or a break in conversation... he always had a story to tell us... always something to crack us up with!
We all know Kev = KFC
On my Honeymoon I had to grab a KFC specially in Kev's honour.
The last 10 years it's been a pleasure knowing you and having you as a mate. Thank you for being a Staff member on the site and always being there to help. So many times you helped me out and I really hope that I managed to help you too... it doesn't feel that way at the moment.
#561992 - 20/06/1710:15 PMRe: RIP Kevin Wheeldon
[Re: ChrisCumbria]
Anthony1664 My real name is Dave
Registered: 27/04/06
Posts: 4703
Loc: Always on here these days !!!
The 1st ever FFST meet I went to was at a campsite in Heartbeat land and having met Scotty on the road in. Kev was one of the 1st other FFST folk I bumped into in April 2007, we instantly hit it off and his sense of humour was just amazing!!!
Many a laugh was had at meets and events, chat about cameras, old 's new 's and having a good old pop at all things GM!
He was a skilful engineer with some great insights into the car manufacturing world !!! His dedication to hard work meant we had not seen much of Kev at recent events but I can truly say he was a top bloke and will be sadly missed and I am saddened I will never have the chance to laugh with him again!
R.I.P Kev!
Edited by Anthony1664 (20/06/1710:16 PM)
_________________________ The Mk6 Fiesta grew in size & became a Mk3 Mondeo it now it's shrinking to a Mk3.5 Focus ST3
Really Is such a shame to hear about this, 52 was nothing and still had plenty to live for!
I've not known Kev Personally for as long as some have after being on the forum a few years after it was created. Only really being able to have catch up's with Kev on the shows during the year, was always good to have a laugh. We talked numerous times about work ( Kev worked at JLR, i have a heavy interest in Engineering as its also my career) and he was pleased at having a promotion with his role and also doing visits to sites in india. Best memory has to be when we had been out the night before FordFair ( i want to say 2013 but in honesty i think it was 2014 ) we spent a load of money in the arcades in Northampton and had a horde of tickets to buy stuff. We bought this kids microphone which changed voices. Gave it to Kev the next day to do the read outs of peoples names for the tickets on a meet up the morning of the show, got about 4 names through before everyone was laughing their heads off over how his voice was.