the times | Thursday October 15 2020 2GM 3
News
becoming quite ill we spent a lot of time
with him,” Mrs Woosey said.
She said that Rick had bonded with
Max over tales of his adventures and
their shared love of camping.
“When you haven’t had children it’s a
way in with a ten-year-old,” she said.
“Max loved hearing the stories and
Rick was fun, he had a climbing wall in
his garage. We don’t have grandparents
near us so it was nice to have someone
to chat to from an older generation.
“Max knew Rick was going to die and
so we had to have those conversations.
It’s almost something special about
someone choosing to spend their last
weeks with you.”Around Christmas time last year Mr
Abbott told Max he wanted to give him
his tent and made him promise to have
an adventure in it. I don’t think in his
wildest dreams he would have realised
the adventure would be everyone being
locked in their houses and Max spend-
ing a year in his back garden, but he
would have found that hilarious,” Mrs
Woosey said.
She admits that she has wanted to
“burn the tent down” at times but can
see why her son is pushing forward with
his challenge. “We have said we will
embrace his decision to do it for a year
but I think I will put my foot down and
bring him in after that,” she said. “He isfeeling that he, as an individual, is able
to do something which isn’t measured
in a Sats results or in an English exam
and he has done something on his own
that has made a difference.”
Max said he was honoured and proud
that his friend had given him the tent
and he spent the first 100 days of his
challenge sleeping in it before he
changed tents to preserve the gift he
had been given.
“I don’t want to break it because I
want to be able to go somewhere with
it,” Max said. “Since he gave it to me it’s
the last memory I have got of him.”
Co-founder of the UK’s first hospice,
obituary, page 50forced the cancellation of this year’s
event on the streets of London.
Ms Hopcroft realised that it was not
working properly when it failed to
record her first half a mile, travelling
down the drive from the Waxham
Sands holiday park where she works,
but she was determined to carry on. She
did not want to let down her sponsors
who were donating more than £2,100 to
the multiple sclerosis charity MS-UK.
“The rain was pouring down so hard
that there were deep puddles which I
couldn’t avoid and I got really bad blis-
ters. Believe me there were a couple of
times I did have a bit of a cry.”
A spokesman for the organisers said:
“We salute Jodey’s strength, stamina
and good humour and hope she raised
plenty of money for MS-UK.”Mystery of the missing Pink Floyd song
Pink Floyd fans believe that a track
rumoured to feature the band as back-
ing musicians may have surfaced more
than 50 years after it was recorded.
Collectors have spent years search-
ing for the apparent unheard recording
of Early Morning Henry. The only clue
that it existed is that its title appeared
on a session sheet under the group’s
name after they spent a day at Abbey
Road Studios on October 25, 1967.
The track was never found or heard
and was thought to have disappeared
shortly after it was recorded.
But an acetate recording marked as
Earley Morning Henry is being offered
for sale tomorrow by Wessex Auction
Rooms in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and
is causing a stir among fans.
Threads on internet forums have
been trying to work out if the track
could be as claimed. Some say that they
recognise the instrumental sounds of
Roger Waters and Nick Mason, and
even the vocals of the late Syd Barrett.
One said: “I’ve listened and it does
sound feasibly like it could be the Floyd
playing. It’s obviously not really their
style, but then why would it be if it’s a
one-shot demo of someone else’s song?
“The backing vocals at the end do
sound a little like Syd, and the bass is
simple enough to be Roger.”
Another added: “I agree it’s all
extremely plausible, but I wouldn’t
want to bet the farm on it, you know?
“If you’re just going by the sound of
the recording, yes the bass and key-
boards could very easily be Roger and
Rick [Wright]. It doesn’t sound unlike
them at all. But they could just as easily
be almost anyone else. They’re really
not that distinctive.”
The track is by William “Billy” Butler,
a soul singer who was listed as being in
the studio on the same day. Some Floydfans are convinced that the band played
as backing musicians after being invit-
ed by the producer Norman “Hurri-
cane” Smith. The recording was made
on a master tape, probably in one take,
but then disappeared.
An estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 has
been set but it is thought that a serious
collector may pay significantly more.
The track was found by a seller who
bought much of a large publishing com-
pany’s library two years ago.
Martin Hughes, the auctioneer,
would not be drawn on the possible link
to Pink Floyd. He said it could not be
listed as a Floyd track for legal reasons.
He added: “It’s very exciting to see the
buzz around the world for this record
but despite the huge amount of evi-
dence available, I cannot sell this with
the band name attached. So we will
have to wait and see what the bidders do
on the day.”London Marathon walker’s
long march with faulty app
A competitor had to walk 49 miles to
complete her virtual London Marathon
due to a problem with the official app
designed to record her performance.
Jodey Hopcroft, 38, was among
38,000 amateurs who used the Virgin
Money London Marathon app on their
own individual routes on October 4.
But poor GPS reception on the north
Norfolk coast meant that the app
worked only intermittently. Ms Hop-
croft ended up walking for more than 15
hours before it finally registered that
she had gone the official marathon
distance of 26.2 miles.
When she returned home exhausted,
she studied a map and found that she
had actually travelled 49 miles.
The app enabled runners to complete
their own routes after coronavirusWhen Rick Abbott knew he had only
weeks left before he died from cancer,
he crossed the street to give his tent to
his young neighbour and told him:
“Max, I want you to promise me you
will have an adventure in it.”
Max Woosey, ten, promised his
friend that he would.
Since Mr Abbott’s death in February,
the cub scout has spent more than 200
nights sleeping in his back garden, rais-
ing more than £40,000 for the hospice
that helped Mr Abbott, 74, to die with
dignity at home.
He initially camped out for one frosty
night in March, then another, then a
friend suggested he set up a Just Giving
page which has now received thou-
sands of donations. Max, from Braun-
ton in North Devon, plans to keep
going until he has slept in the tent in the
garden for a year in his effort to help
North Devon Hospice.
He said that the best part of bedding
down outside was escaping his parents
and getting to read the Beano for as long
as he wanted. “It’s exhausting but great
fun,” he said. “I love it, you can do
anything you want. I read the
Beano for ages, play with
my teddies, sleep and
sometimes I sneak a bit
of food in.”
He said the worst
bits had been find-
ing an ants’ nest un-
derneath the tent
and “sometimes
getting a bit freaked
out when it’s stormy”.
His mother, Rach-
ael, 48, an accountant,
and father, Mark, 52, a
major in the Royal Mari-
nes, were sceptical at first
about letting their son sleep out on
March 28. They have had to get used to
walking into the wet and windy wea-
ther to wish Max “goodnight” before
zipping him in until morning.
The family moved in opposite Mr
Abbott and his wife, Sue, six years ago.
The Abbotts, who had no children
themselves, enjoyed adventurous holi-
days and spending time in the country-
side that surrounded them.
“They were just an incredible
couple,” Mrs Woosey said. “They would
go off cross-
country skiing for
eight weeks and Rick
was in the water every
day paddleboarding.
“Just days before Sue was diagnosed
with brain cancer she had been on a
climbing holiday with friends.” Mrs Ab-
bott, 70, died in 2017 and the hospice
helped to care for her in her final weeks.
Mr Abbott was being treated for
cancer at the same time and following
the loss of his wife his neighbours
rallied round. A group of eight sought
hospice support to help him fulfil his
desire to die at home.
“When it became apparent he wasThe boy intent on a year of adventures
Max Woosey, who
has comics and his
dog for company,
was given the tent by
Rick and Sue AbbottMax Woosey, ten, has
slept for 200 nights in
his garden to honour a
dying friend’s last wish,
Will Humphries writes
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