Today has been a sad day. I learned of the death of Donald Heritage. Donald was the father of Mark Heritage. As a family, they had a strong involvement in Scottish racing. Mark started at the age of 12, maybe less. He was a child prodigy. With a background in motorbikes, Marks skills transferred to enable him to become one of the fastest young guns in the country. Janet and Donald supported Mark and David whole heartidly in there various biking competitions.
As a team, Donald and Janet worked towards getting the SDA as we know it up and running. Janet his Mum is the most determined lady I have ever met. Janet and Donald took the organisational knowledge form their MX days and applied it to the running standard of the SDA.
The Heritages are amazing. The closest team ever! They travelled week in week out, as the caravan door opened, so did the can of chaos! They are a riot from start to finish! I will never forget taking Mark out to France; I was his guarantor as he was still quite young. We were on strict instructions to ‘look after’ him. The guys took him under their wings and Mark unleashed. In the second week, Janet and Donald joined us. We had a fab week together, loads of big ole family meals out, a pit stop at the final hill climb of the Tour de France and a ‘relocation’ of apartments. I booked an apartment for 10 and folk just came out and crashed. Unfortunately, the landlady wasn’t too happy that her apartment had reached squatting status in less than a week and found is somewhere bigger!
Donald was so supportive of his boys, never missed a race, he was always there in the car park, van running for uplift, the toolbox was always at hand, constant advice and feedback and the jokes and side splitting stories streamed like a tap. I have many fond memories of Donald, mostly, his ability to make everyone around him laugh. He was magic. I wish my Dad was half the man Donald was.
My love and sympathy goes out to Janet, Mark and David.
Donald, you will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace. X
Jaymie Mart - BARBADOS NATIONAL DOWNHILL TEAM - one of the most colourful and well loved athletes on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup tour today.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
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