Crash tragedy as man from Holt dies with girlfriend (From This Is Wiltshire)

Crash tragedy as man from Holt dies with girlfriend

8:40am Friday 7th August 2009 in

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A popular musician who grew up in Holt and lived in Trowbridge for many years has died after losing control of a kit car he was test driving with his girlfriend.

Andrew Tinker, 39, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, died in Solihull Hospital in Birmingham on July 25 after his family made the heartbreaking decision to switch his life support machine off.

His death came four days after he lost control of the kit car he was test driving in Staffordshire with his girlfriend Jane Croft, who was also killed in the crash.

Mr Tinker, a musician with AC/DC cover band Live/Wire whose nickname was Tink, had recently been told by doctors that he had terminal cancer, although it was an illness he was determined to overcome.

His mother Janet, 70, who lives off Station Road in Holt, said: “We found out that he had been involved in a crash on the Thursday when the police came round.

“It was a terrible shock. I don’t think it has really sunken in yet.

“Realistically, we are glad that at least he wouldn’t have felt anything.

“He didn’t suffer as much as he would have done if he had gone on to die from his cancer.

“He was a bright, cheerful, optimistic person, always on the go and he seemed to have been very popular.”

Mr Tinker, who was a computer technician and a former St Laurence School pupil, leaves his mum Janet, father Len, 75, and two brothers Nigel, 52, and Stephen, 50.

In May Mr Tinker visited his doctor with swollen glands only to be told that he had throat cancer which had spread to his lungs.

Mrs Tinker said: “He told us he was going to prove to his doctors wrong and be one of those people who, 10 years later, tells people that he was only given months to live. He certainly lived life to the full.”

Tributes have been flooding in on the band’s blog site, where a page has been set up in his memory.

Mrs Tinker said: “I have read the tribute and some of the words left on the website, but I could only read one or two before I started welling up. It is still too soon.

“When he was on stage he wanted the limelight and he would go up there and he was in a different world.

“But you take him off the stage and he was shy and retiring.”

His parents spoke to Mr Tinker regularly and last saw him over the May Bank Holiday when Mr Tinker was driving an Aston Martin that he and Ms Croft had hired for the weekend in a bid to complete some of his lifetime ambitions.

His funeral will be held at West Wiltshire Crematorium in Semington on Wednesday, August 12.