Angela Thomas
1946-2008
Angela
died at home on Thursday October 9th after a short battle with
cancer.
Ange
and Clive have been at the heart of the Club for over 25 years, joining in the
early 1980’s. She has been a quiet, but
strong and constant inspiration to many, both young and old. She became an Honorary Life Member for
services to the Club in 2005.
At
Monday Juniors she has been the lady in charge of time-keeping at the monthly
competition nights; for the Street races she has been in charge of
entries. For Cross-country teams she has
been the inspiration to keep on running, always turning out. She has been our membership secretary for
over 16 years.
Always
a modest but positive force, she has been women’s team captain and manager, kit
manager, timekeeper, track official, wheelbarrow pusher of the club marquee,
Running Sisters promoter, Street tea lady, and always there… always with a
smile. Her trademark pink shorts and
pink accessories have graced all manner of events and been a beacon for us all.
A
keen supporter of local races and events, she was either an official or
participant. She managed to retain and
hone her speed over many years winning the Somerset Race Series outright in
1998. At the Street 5k races last year her
age-graded percentage was only usually bettered by the first few runners
home. Along with Clive, she was one of
only 6,700 runners in the first London Marathon in 1981, demonstrating her own
athletic talent by storming home in close to 3 hours 10 mins. Ange was also game
to take up any club adventure. She ran
in over 10 Cotswold way relay teams, including the first. Last year she went off with friends to walk
and run in the Himalayas.
Since
retiring, after a long and distinguished career in teaching, she took the
opportunity to become a full time athlete.
Perhaps her proudest athletic moment was being selected to be part of
the Welsh team at the Cross country international last November in Belfast. She has also travelled the world with great
enthusiasm, often to witness great sporting events and spent much of her time
with Neal, Alan and her grandchildren.
Few
people have such “joie de vivre”. We
will all miss her enormously.
Angela's
funeral will be held next Friday 17th October at
A
book of memories is being put together to record any special moments with
Angela down the years. It will be at the
Victoria Club (directions – click link below) after the funeral on Friday
October 17th. Please bring
along any photos or mementos you wish to place in the book on the day or
contact Tatiana Storie 01749 670212 or Rachel
Wray 01749 345810 if you can’t come and would like to write a message.
http://victoriaclubstreet.com/Website/FindUs/FindUs.aspx
also see http://www.welshathletics.org/news/october-news/angela-thomas/