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Ron Haworth 1941 - 2015

Very sadly, we lost Ron on 14 December 2015 but he will never be forgotten.

 

As an original founding member, Ron’s determination combined with a professionalism and almost stubbornness to only succeed, constantly inspires us, particularly in some of our more challenging times or tasks.

 

Ron was in sales and marketing all his working life, beginning his sales career at the age of 18 working for a wholesale fruiterer. He progressed to become a sales manager with a large insurance company and then became involved in the property market. Ron later became a freelance marketing executive and began to obtain new clients for his wife's former partnership in an accountancy practice. He has since undertaken the same role for her business Haworth Associates Accountants and more recently for Haworth Armson.

 

In 2012 Ron had a liver transplant as a result of an auto-immune disease. He was very seriously ill but never complained or moaned about his lot. He bore his illness in a way we could all learn from and he resumed his life as if nothing had happened.

 

Tragically he suddenly became ill in October and despite battling as hard as anyone could, he lost the fight.

 

We are all richer for having Ron in our lives and we want to continue his legacy and ensure he is never forgotten.

We could all learn a lot from the way Ron lived his life. No matter how bad things were or how ill he felt, his glass was always half full.
 
Wherever he is, he'll be making friends...

Since his transplant in 2012 as a result of suffering from PBC which is an auto immune disease affecting the liver, Ron worked tirelessly to raise money for the liver transplant unit at St. James's University Hospital ('Jimmys') in Leeds.

 

He also tried to ensure that everyone he met signed up to the organ donor register and just as importantly, that they told their family about their wishes. A huge number of healthy organs are wasted every year that could be used to save lives. It is also a sad fact that many people who have signed the organ donor register have their wishes overridden by their relatives, so if you do register, please, please, please, tell your family and impress upon them what you want. If you or a member of your family needed a transplant would you accept one? If so, you should also be prepared to donate to help someone else!  

 

Ron was a salesman through and through and even just a week before he died he was trying to sign up new tax clients from his fellow patients and making sure they knew about auto enrolment. He regularly phoned to remind his wife to take business cards to the hospital with her as he had a potential new client.

 

Nothing would please Ron more than to know that his work was being carried on in his absence.

 

We will be holding an annual fundraising event in aid of the St James's University Hospital Liver Unit Trust in Ron's name. Details to follow.

'Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those?

 

That is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain,

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again''

 

AE Housman

The Longest Sleep

 

Age brings a certain enlightenment, particularly when coupled with serious illness. Two years ago I was told I had only weeks to live without a major operation. Before this I had always feared death, but being so close to it, I accepted it quite calmly.

 

The nearer one gets to death, the less one comes to fear its inevitability. I survived the operation and can tell the tale.

 

As one ages, the need to sleep becomes greater and is enjoyed more

Why then do we fear death? It is merely a longer sleep.

Do we dream during this longest sleep? No one knows.

What do our dreams mean? I often dream of places I have never been and can recall them clearly, when awake.

 

Life is so fleeting, I wonder is life the dream and death the reality?

Does our soul, all that is us, live on in some way unknown?

 

Certainly earthly memories of us fade very quickly, very few of us can even remember our great grand parents, their names, what they did, or how they lived their lives.

In the great scheme of things, we live but a moment, yet that moment means everything to us.

No one knows the answer to the meaning of life.

The greatest minds cannot penetrate its secrets.

 

We all hope that our souls live on, but if they do not, what is there to fear? We enjoy a good sleep, why should we not enjoy our longest sleep when our bodies so badly need to rest?

 

Copyright Ron Haworth 2014 

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