Sheila & Christopher lost their son Matthew aged 27 on 12th Feb 07. Andrew and Patrick lost their brother
Matthew had a degree in psychology and despite being completely non-confrontational, he loved nothing more than a wind-up or good strong debate about anything and everything with family and his wide circle of friends. A clear and rational thinker, he usually demolished the opposition. Whilst at university, to earn spending money, he loaded shelves at ASDA then on the phones in a local Call Centre He also briefly worked in Customer Services at Securicor (3 days) and one afternoon as a security man at Stamford Bridge for a Chelsea game – thankfully it was a quiet match.
After university Matthew worked as a recruitment consultant in the telecoms industry. His career took him to Denver, Colorado where he trained the locals in the fine art of recruitment. At the time of his death he was working for Hays but was considering going abroad again. Maybe to Australia this time, or Italy, or perhaps USA again?
His interests including ski-ing which he rediscovered in the US, motorsport – F1 in particular, attending Grand Prix in Hungary, Spa, Spain and Silverstone. Family holidays used to be on the continent or in Australia but in recent years he enjoyed a safari in Kenya and had a fabulous time in South Korea. He was a loyal Spurs fan and would have been thrilled by their recent return to form. He had a great sense of humour and loved South Park and The Simpsons.
Matthew shared a house with friends but he never saw the point of doing housework and didn’t care much for cooking either. When it was his turn to cook in the evening he would generally buy everybody a take-away. Even so, he could make a great potato salad.
Matthew’s health had been excellent. Apart from a sleep problem in his teenage years he had had no health issues of note. Three weeks before his death he may have had a night-time seizure but this is not certain. The unexplained seizure which took Matthew’s life was a complete shock to his family and all of his friends.
“We strongly support the research presently getting underway at King’s College Hospital in London. We want to find out why he died and how to prevent other healthy adults with everything to live for from falling victim to SUDEP, “the thief which comes in the night.””
