Matt aka Ginja

V6SINGH

Official UKCougar Stuntman
Jul 29, 2005
5,710
1,102
BE11 3ND
It is with a heavy heart that I type this. I know many of you have been following Matt's posts about his health and his wedding.

At around half 6 yesterday evening, we had a message from his wife that he'd taken a drastic and sudden turn for the worse. The doctors had said he had literally hours to live. Becky and I flew over to the hospital and stayed there until almost 1am. A lot of Matt's family gathered over the evening. He was himself up until I left. I left telling him I expected a full report in the morning on how shit the breakfast was.

On Saturday, he had asked Kevin, Silver Dream Machine to be his wedding photographer. I rang Kevin before setting off to the hospital as he and Matt were also close friends. Kev had said he'd not long finished compiling the pictures and videos onto a DVD.

At the hospital, I had the idea that if indeed this was Matt's last night that maybe seeing his pictures etc would in some way give him a kick, a glimmer of something to hang on for. I called Kev who came to the hospital complete with all the pictures etc and a device for Matt to watch/see them on.

Matt had had used up his physical strength to achieve his goal of getting married. He did that with immense pride. Never have a I met a man that had the strength, determination and will that Matt had to achieve his goal.

In the early hours, 01:45 to be precise, Matt's body could no longer keep up with his will and determination.

As his Best Man just four days ago, it's unreal that I'm writing this today.




Rest In Peace Matthew.


You absolutely will never be forgotten.


Give our regards to Dave, Les and Chris.


Sleep well mate,



Kully, Becky and Karishma x


P.S. I WILL make sure everyone knows you drove a Cougar 2 :)
 
Brought a lump to my throat. RIP Matt. May you reverse park over all the traffic cones up there...

Rob and Jayne

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Rip Matt.

I was genuinely gutted when I was told the news a short time ago.

My condolences to everyone who was close and I hope you can help each other through this terrible time.

Rip Matt....and Kully, if there is anything I can do, please ask.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RIP Matt.

Distance doesn't make this tragic news any easier to comprehend.

Our heartfelt condolences to Emma and Tina and to Matt's family.

Andy, Karen, Matt and Nathan.
 
R.I.P. Matt.

My deepest sympathies to Emma, Tina and all of Matt's family.

Your bravery and determination throughout your illness leaves me speechless. You were determined to get married to Emma no matter what life threw in your way. You succeeded with flying colours, it's just a pity you could not have had more time with your wife.
I am sure that everyone from ukcougar will miss you.
 
Even after seeing Matt, clearly unwell at his wedding at the weekend, this still comes as a total shock.
One of this club's greatest characters, you'll never be forgotten.

Deepest condolences to Emma, Tina and Matt's family and friends.

Manos, Mo and Theo x.
 
I spoke to Matt and Emma at Badminton Hall a couple of weeks back, just before they left for Tim and Rachels wedding. I only had a few minutes as i arrived when they were ready for leaving. The thing that really amazed me about Matt and his situation was that outwardly, he just didn't seem fazed by it, he just got on with, i guess what he knew he had left. A character for us all to remember and cherish, we just know he's going to be missed by a lot of us who have been lucky enough to have known him, and as has been said above, it's a crying shame he wasn't allowed more time together with Emma and family.
Rest in peace, Matt, we're gonna miss ya!
 
When I signed in just now this was the first thing I saw and my heart sank. I didn't know Matt very well but from what I could tell from here he seemed like a nice helpful guy and it is obvious that he had the love and respect of his friends.

Our condolences to all your family and friends - I'm glad that at least you got to get married and experience the wedding day which by all accounts was brilliant.

Keep it rockin' up there.

Matt & Erika.
 
I didn't know Matt personally, but enjoyed reading his post's on here, he was just leaving from Castle Combe when I arrived, so didn't get to meet him, my thoughts are with his new wife and family at this sad time. R.I.P.
 
I got back from abroad yesterday and was slowly catching up with all the latest news and was chuffed to bits to read about Matts wedding and even though I only ever met Matt once it brought a lump to my throat to think that he had finally got hitched and found happiness. Then to log on today and hear this terrible news it makes me think there is no justice in this world.
Our thoughts go to Emma and Tina and of course Matts family
 
Still can't believe it, hasn't sunk in yet! A truely brave man glad you managed to marry your soul mate .life was better for knowing Ginja RIP. Thoughts are with his familly and freinds at this sad time. Did you know he had C2.
 
Absolutely shell shocked to read this news. We obviously knew Matt was extremely and irreversibly ill, but I had no idea that his remaining time would be quite so short. I'm thankful for the few short years that I knew Matt and the times we shared a joke or generally chewed the fat at various shows, Xmas meets and even on one memorable occasion on a sliproad at the side of the M42! My sincerest condolences go to Emma. For reasons most of you know, it will be simply impossible to attend the funeral. I'll be there in spirit.

R.I.P. Matt, another sad and painful loss from the UK Cougar family.
 
I didn't know Matt but my deepest condolences to all those who knew him.

Some wonderful tributes to him on here, and my thoughts are with those who had the pleasure to know him.


Rest in Peace
 
I have known Matt for around 10 years, he was one of the 2006 Modified Nationals crew, that was a great weekend and all that attended remember the weekend with fondness and to this day I am friends with everybody that shared that weekend, my particular memory of Matt from that weekend was when he dropped the face of his head unit into the chemical bog on the Sunday morning, I still remember my reaction, which was laughing my head off as he shook the thing trying to liberate the traces of effluent from the depths of the face. To many people he may have seemed to be the butt of my jokes, at times he was but never in a nasty way, for a man so slight, he had broad shoulders (metaphorically) and would take anything I threw at him in the way it was intended and give something back in return. He was always enthusiastic about car shows, especially his beloved Ford Fair, which he would arrange for the club for a number of years.
He never made a secret of the financial difficulties that he faced and would still try to attend as many events as he could, often ill prepared, but he still made the effort. He was often peripheral as many of the louder characters (i.e. me) made fools of themselves at shows, but he was always there, always polite, always friendly.
The one thing that had eluded him was somebody to care for and who would care for him, that was until a few years ago, when I saw him at our last Cougarfest in 2012, I already knew that he'd met a girl named Emma, true to form I still ribbed him on here and Facebook, when I saw him at Fest he looked a different person to the one I had known for the previous 8 or so years. He somehow looked taller, certainly more confident and definitely happy, I commented about it to him and to several others during the weekend. Emma had given Matt exactly what he needed.
I was shocked when I saw him on his wedding day, to the point when I had tears welling in my eyes, I couldn't believe the difference, the toll that his illness had taken on his body, the man that had grown in stature so much 2 years ago had now been ravaged by the illness that had taken over his life. Of course, the jokes still continued on the day as I announced that we'd bought him some arse beads from ann summers as a wedding present, but that was the nature of the relationship I had with Matt. It was one of the best weddings that I have attended and as with any invite, you have to consider it an honour that somebody is prepared to invite you to the whole day, I certainly saw it that way and had a great day.

I won't try and say that I was his best friend, there are many people in the queue before me, but I do consider him a friend, he was one of the good guys, I haven't seen him regularly since losing my Cougar either, but the fact that I won't be able to see him again saddens me deep inside.

My heartfelt condolences go out to Emma, Tina and Matt's family, this came too soon for somebody so young, I have never met anybody that fought so bravely against a disease that he knew would ultimately cost him his life.

Rest in peace Matt, you will be greatly missed.:(