On behalf of the Scottish Storytelling Forum, it is with very deep sadness that I have to report the sudden death of Andy Hunter. Andy was super fit – walking and cycling everywhere, but was unfortunately unaware that, for some time, he had had an underlying heart condition which led to his completely unexpected and very untimely death. He died while on a visit to Herefordshire, where he had been brought up, but it is comforting to know that he was found by a local person and that he died in a familiar place.

Andy was one of our finest, but most modest storytellers and an incredible supporter and hard worker on behalf of storytelling in Scotland. He was the Treasurer of the Storytelling Forum and organiser of the Guid Crack Club. He was on excellent form hosting the Christmas meeting, which was sadly to become his last. He was an excellent mentor and teacher and I was fortunate to attend a wonderful workshop which he led on Christmas Stories just a few weeks ago.

Running Storybikes gave him the opportunity to combine his loves of cycling, nature and the outdoors and telling stories; he was a member of the Life Stories Group and brought joy to the lives of so many elderly folk in care homes and day centres. Andy was also involved with the Pilgrim Journeys Project and had walked miles looking for locations. Recently, as part of that project, he had visited and told stories in the town of Fiesole, near Florence in Italy. Several of the storytellers from there had been at Andy’s 60^th birthday ceilidh in November.

Everyone will have their own thoughts about Andy and we are inviting you to send in stories and memories to Davide (davide@scottishstorytellingcentre.com) so that we can collect them all together.

Andy’s funeral will be held at Polwarth Parish Church at 11am on Friday 23^rd January to which you are all invited.

Our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy go to Andy’s wife, Anne, his daughter Jacinta and all the family. Their loss is the greatest, but Andy leaves a gaping hole in the lives of us all. He will be very sadly missed.

Bea Ferguson
Chair of the Scottish Storytelling Forum.

You can read a tribute to Andy by Ros Trafford-Roberts here.