Poppy hero Andy honoured with military funeral
THE life of a man who collected a record-breaking sum for the Poppy Appeal while battling terminal cancer has been marked with a full military funeral.
And, in accordance with his wishes, mourners at Andy Reekie’s funeral at Coychurch Crematorium in Bridgend last Thursday, all wore poppies and, after the service, placed them on top of his coffin.
The 67-year-old’s colleagues in the Bridgend branch of the Royal British Legion have said Andy was so dedicated to raising funds to help forces’ personnel and their families, he continued work on the appeal up until the day he died on March 10.
“He organised the local Poppy Appeal with military precision,” said branch vice president David White.
“This is a man who dedicated his life to the armed forces.”
Branch chairman John Cowdery said Andy, a chef who served in the Army Catering Corps for 25 years at home and abroad, worked on a computer in his bed in the palliative care centre Y Bwthyn, adding up the donations to ensure he had indeed broken the branch’s fundraising record.
Before he died he was able to tell colleagues that £71,111.16 had been raised in Bridgend in 2016 – far in excess of the annual sums raised before.
John said: “In the past two years since he came back in as the Poppy Appeal organiser, he virtually doubled the amount that was coming in.”
John also recalled how, during the appeal fortnight last autumn, branch secretary Andy, who joined the Legion in 1994, would go to the hospital to receive chemotherapy in the morning and then head straight to the Poppy Shop in the centre of town to ensure all local volunteer sellers were at their posts.
“If somebody hadn’t turned up to their post in a supermarket, Andy would go and sit in for them. He would sit there for hours,” said John.He fought cancer for about a year. He fought it well and he carried on for as long as he could. What was in his mind all the time was the Legion and the Poppy Appeal.”
John said in past years Andy, a chef in a restaurant in Bridgend town centre, had even taken two weeks of his annual holiday entitlement to ensure he would be available throughout the entire appeal fortnight and also ensured the marching bands and VIPs were booked to attend the town’s annual Remembrance Day parade and service. His dedication to the Poppy Appeal won him awards from the Royal British Legion, Bridgend town Mayor Rob Morgan and a Citizenship Award from Bridgend County Borough Council Mayor Reg Jenkins.
Andy, who was born in Northamptonshire but had lived in Bridgend for many years, is survived by his wife Julie, three children and five grandchildren.