Some of you may know Dave Hodgson, some of you may not, some of you may have got to know him over the past 12-18 months or so. If you’ve got to know him through the internet, then you’re probably a user of the social networking site, Twitter. Some of you may use it, some of you may avoid it at all costs. If you’re the latter, you’re going to have to bear with me but you can still take a lot of heart from this obituary.
I’ve never met Dave, we had a few mutual friends including Matt Harrison, Molineux Blue, a former fanzine contributor who always stops for a chat when we’re selling the magazine on the bridge. The thing is, I could have met Dave and missed the chance. I was picking up tickets at the DW last Christmas and I saw someone stood a few yards away who I guessed to be Dave by his twitter profile. But then I thought ‘nah can’t be he’s in Dubai’ and my natural shyness took over. I’m always a bit hesitant about going over to speak to someone you’ve only seen in a picture, at least in my eyes in case I get it wrong, as believe it or not, when I’m not flogging fanzines I am quite a shy person. Clearly I regret this quite a bit now.
It was only when I was back in the car I’d remembered he’d talked online about coming home from Dubai, where he lived, over Christmas and yes, it probably was him. He didn’t have cancer then, or at least it wasn’t at the advanced stages but I remember he was a big, strapping lad and was smiling through the bitter cold winter we had last Christmas. I got over my regret though because I was convinced me and Dave would meet soon.
We sparred a lot online about football matters, well Wigan Athletic to be more precise. As Dave himself often said, he didn’t know which was more painful, the cancer or being a Wigan Athletic fan. The great irony is that Dave would never, ever moan about his cancer, his melanoma, or his general lot in life to be 41 years old and told it’s probably your last one. He only ever moaned about Wigan Athletic. Just like we all do. It’s why we all follow Wigan Athletic, it gives us something to moan about. Dave really did have something to moan about in life. But he rarely ever did.
Dave would explain at great length (well in 140 character chunks) everything that was happening to his body and the numerous surgical procedures he went through to help fight the cancer. Just describing what he was going through was painful for many people to read I guess, I know it was for me but he fought through it all, time and time again with amazing bravery, making major surgery sound trivial and using humour to get himself through it.
I tend to put a lot of daft, jokey, cynical tweets on twitter and just the other week Dave said ‘you make me smile, keep ‘em coming’. The truth is it made me smile knowing I was making him smile and whenever Wigan Athletic have won a game in the last few months (rare I know), or even got a point against the big guns, I’ve been pleased, but also thought of Dave. I moan incessantly about modern football and all that is wrong with it but knowing that a football team can put a smile on someone’s face is a powerful thing and Wigan Athletic were Dave’s inspiration just as he was an inspiration to many others.
It wasn’t difficult to sense from his tweets that things were getting worse for Dave in the last few weeks, and although I spend way too much of my time tweeting (as the missus will testify) whenever I had a look on my phone I was careful to check that Dave had tweeted – to check he was still up and about and fighting his illness. Despite this, I was convinced he’d get through it, loads of us talked about him coming over to watch a Latics match in the New Year and having a big party for Dave. He didn’t necessarily want a party, it was more something that the #wafc online community demanded because so many people wanted to meet the big man as his story had touched so many hearts. It was non-negotiable in my eyes and many other people’s, we always knew it was going to happen.
But Cancer doesn’t listen to logic and whatever happened in the last 48 hours we don’t exactly know but we know it won’t have been down to Dave not fighting hard enough because the man fought like no other to try and beat this evil, nasty disease which afflicts so many lives, many of them at such a tragically young age.
Dave was 41 – I could be wrong there as for all the football chats we had I don’t know an awful lot about him but I’ll not be far off. He also leaves a wife, Natalie and a daughter. There’s a lot of rubbish on social media at this time of year, lots of people moaning about being ill with colds, having no money, being bored and so on and so on. When you read about somebody who is terminally ill and still living life to the full with a smile on their face it puts all the trivial moans into perspective.
I’d like to think that Dave Hodgson has taught me and others to appreciate daily what each of us has in life and learn not to take things for granted. Not only is life short but you never know exactly how short it is and making the most out of it is the least that you owe to the world and yourself. Dave certainly did that and will be sorely missed far beyond the realms of his friends and family amongst hundreds if not thousands of Latics fans and football fans. As a man, he charmed me many times with his spirit and humour and downright stubbornness in fighting a deadly killer and I’ve got upset more than once just writing these words about someone I’d never met but I felt Dave was worthy of writing about even though not everyone reading this knew of him.
He is a sad loss for Wigan Athletic fans everywhere but also an inspiration and a reminder of what an amazing football club we follow. A true family club that sticks together and where we look out for one another. I hope Dave’s family do not mind me writing these words and they do not cause offence, I’m kind of making an assumption that I’m speaking on behalf of many voices within the Latics community given what I’ve read this morning. I’m sure myself like many others feels sad but that we all also cannot imagine the pain that the Hodgson family are suffering today. I also know that Dave himself will be at peace now, and as we all know he has fought longer and harder than anyone could have imagined possible. My thoughts are with his family and their tragic loss. Keep the Faith.
Rest in Peace Dave Hodgson
#BeAtPeaceDave
Links:
I have just read his articles on the Birmingham Post website which give an idea of the man. His quote “Say what u like about football but for the last 5 hours I totally forgot I had #cancer. Thats what it does to u. #wafc [Wigan Athletic Football Club] till I die! ” shows the man’s bravery. I didn’t know him and until today I had never heard of him. Like Jimmy I wish I had met him . RIP Dave
Jimmy
Beautifully put mate – a man that many people would do well to learn from – hopefully our club will also pay a fitting tribute to his memory #BeAtPeaceDave
I didn’t know him personally but chatted to him on Twitter quite often. He was a stupendous guy and this is very sad news. Dave’s bravery, honesty, tenacity, and outlook on life in the face of adversity was inspirational. My thoughts are with his friends and loved ones.
Not a twitterer (or whatever you call them!) myself.
But if this brave chap was a Latics Mon, then he was one of the family.
RIP
I am Natalie Dave’s wife and he was an amazing man. Your words are kind and true he put up an amazing fight, but in the end he went with peace in his heart with me and a dear friend by his side all the way.
I am hoping to have a plaque or something at WAFC in memory of dave. I am not sure if this is possible yet but he loved that club and yes he did moan about it but he loved it.
Thank you Jimmy
It is not often I am brought to tears over someone I have never met. But these aren’t the first tears I’ve shed today after hearing of Dave’s passing. Like many others I got to know Dave via Twitter and much as you talk of the WAFC family this comes from a proud Warrior. Another measure of a truly great man. #BeAtPeaceDave x
I never had the pleasure of meeting Dave but I did communicate with him a few week’s ago about what he describribed as one of his bucket list desire’s to own a horse and to see the horse run in Dubai, Unfurtunately, we did not manage to fulfil that dream.
I find it difficult to put my feelings into words for a man I never met but I can honestly say that I shed a tear tonight, a tear that probably hasn’t fallen for 15 years or more!
From a Dubai based Boro fan,
Stephen Humphreys
I knew Dave briefly, he went through school with my wife and i met him at a few parties in the late 80′s into early 90′s. I had cancer at twenty so i know what he went through!
Rest in Peace Dave.
Thanks for writing this, I never met Dave but like so many other people got to know him on Twitter because of our mutual love of Wigan Athletic and his positive attitude considering what he was fighting. My last tweet to him was answering his question about what time the Stoke game was and I felt when I heard he has passed away. I also hope that Wigan Athletic pay a tribute to Dave because he was a very special person.
Like many I never had the pleasure of meeting Dave in person. We had many lively debates about different sporting issues and I loved that.
He was there during the Springfield Park days, never moaned about cancer. In fact he was more stressed about Wigan getting relegated, hope this never happens and if it does, he won’t see it.
Would love if they did something for him at Sunderland match. I appreciated all the debates and he helped me realise how important life is.
Well people, I can tell you one thing from experience. The thoughts and prayers from people who had never met Dave (like myself) really do help.
Knowing that so many people are thinking about you in your time of grief is something that stays with you for the rest of your life.
Knowing that people really mean it when they offer you help in any way to help you through it brings back your faith in true human kindness. Even if the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of a loved one shakes your faith in God or whatever.
As many people from this site who were around at the time know, our dear Mum was killed in an accident the day before Latics got promoted to the Premier League. And I can tell you, without the help and thoughts of everyone it would have been almost impossible to bear.
RIP and to the family, be strong and proud, people are really there for you.
Les
Like most people, I’d never met Dave and only knew about him from Twitter maybe three or four months ago and only found out about the cancer a month ago. However, having lost a father from cancer and a mother from Alzheimer’s, I can fully appreciate how hard it’s been for all concerned and how sorry I feel for those affected.
The internet is a strange beast. We all “know” people who we’ve never met, probably never spoken to, but whose deaths affect us badly. I played an online game with someone who died in a house fire several years ago now and his passing affected quite a few of us who had never had the pleasure of meeting him and still brings a twinge nowadays.
All I can do is send my best wishes to friends and family. Life can be a bitch at times.
Just wanted to echo all the sentiments above, and say that he faced his future with bravery and dignity. Amazing how we have all been affected by someone dying who we have never met.
Like Jimmy and many other’s I had got to know Dave through the medium of twitter over the last twelve months.
Once again I never met Dave, didn’t actually speak to him in the traditional sense but had enough time speaking to him on twitter to get a feel of the man. It seemed he was getting worse over the last few weeks and his tweets became less frequent over that time.
There isnt anything you can say which hasnt already been said I just hope the support from the Wigan Athletic community helped him over the last twelve months, as it was a pleasure getting to know him.
A great epitaph Jimmy.
As someone who worked with Dave since he arrived in Dubai i can honestly say there was never a day i didn’t see him simle, illness or no illness. We can all take a leaf out of his book with his outlook of life.
The way he handled himself these past 6 months was just mindblowing, something most of us could never imagine.
Dave you will be missed and just remember my football team Aberdeen is just as bad as yours
I dont know how I met dave on twitter, it was a few months back, i think it must have been when i was asking for flight advicefrom south africa to the uk. I didnt read his bio striaght away, just decided this was someone i should. follow esp as i love my football also (birmingham city)
I rememberr. one tweet where i took the mick out of his team and questioned why he was in Chicago, when he told me i was mortified, but he told me not to be and just to carry on tweeting as it, twitter, helped him, by providing laughs.
RIP Dave
I knew Dave, was a couple of years ahead of him at school, lived round the corner, worked with him for a short time, and kept in touch infrequnetly by mail. Dave was simply a great lad, great company when (rarely) we met. I don’t follow the twitter stuff so only found out relatively recently when he mailed me. I wish his family all the very best and hope that you have great memories of him to cheirsh.