The Man

Colin Graham was born to John and Denise on the 21st July 1977.

A pupil of Langley First School and then Monkseaton Middle School, aged 11 Colin attended The King's School Tynemouth where he gained 9 GCSE's followed by 3 A'levels and 1 A/S level. The rocking chair he made for his A'level CDT project gained him the highest mark awarded that year by the exam board.

Following A-levels, Colin attended Newcastle University where he gained a first class degree with honours in Computing Science.

From a young age, Colin was always very active. Bike riding, roller skating, skateboarding, sail boarding, running, swimming and sky-diving. He was a natural and it never took him long to pick up new activities. Everything was performed to the best of his ability.

Swimming was one of Colin's favourite activities as a youngester. Aged 11 he swam 3 miles in the Great North Swim and he was a member of Tynemouth Swimming Club for a number of years, winning many medals and achieving a fifth place in the National finals of the 200m Breaststroke in 1992.

He completed the Border Bike Ride, riding nearly 48 miles from Morpeth to Alnwick. Two or three Children's Cancer Runs and Two Great North Runs, and in 1999 he and a team from Andersen Consulting won the the Three Peaks Challenge climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon in 21 hours and 20 minutes.

Colin also displayed musical talent playing recorde, viola, grade 2 piano accordian and grade 3 theory of music.

Cars always played an important part in Colin's life, starting off with his mum's Citroen AX, soon followed by an AX GTi, (with his personal registration as an 18th Birthday present), a Renault Clio, Toyota Celica and finally his pride and joy TVR Chimaera.

Colin was not afraid of hard work. As soon as he was old enough he got himself a paper round at the local Newsagents, also delivering the free newspapers before getting a job at Sainsbury's, where he worked on the produce department for four years. During his final University summer vacation, he had a placement with R. A. Hall through the Shell STEPS scheme which he won for his area. In his final year Colin worked as techical sales representative for Packard Bell, and in the Students into Schools department of Newcastle University..

During the summer vacation between the second and final year of his degree course, Colin was accepted on a residential conference held in Sofia Antipolis on the South Coast of France. The course was held by Andersen Consulting, now called Accenture. During the final academic year of his degree course, Colin was offered a position with Accenture whom he joined in November 1999. During the 2 years of his career, Colin gained the highest respect of peers and seniors, due to his exceptional motivation, his insight and his ability.

Outside work, Colin was also a larger than life character with whom there was rarely (never?) a dull moment. His ability to talk to anyone meant that most people he came into contact with, through work, university, or socially became friends. Throughout his life, Colin always pushed to achieve, whether academically, at work, or in his busy social life. Colin's love of life meant he was always looking for a thrill. The TVR Chimera which he bought in the Summer 2000 provided him with much joy especially as he drove it through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy (in one day!!!), during Summer 2000.

Colin's success academically and at work did not, however, go to his head. Colin worked hard during his life and it was through that commitment that he enjoyed in 23 years what many people fail to achieve in an entire lifetime.

He also had grand plans for the future. Everest base camp 1, Raleigh International, London marathon and New York marathon were just a few things Colin had talked about for the future. In search of the thrill, Col made several parachute jumps. The first of these jumps was with his brother at Brunton airfield in Northumberland in 1997. More recently he and 2 close friends made a jump at Brunton in November for one of their birthdays. This jump was from a height of 3500 ft and followed a day of training. The jumps were all successful and Colin was congratulated for a perfect landing. Two weeks later, on Saturday 25th November, Colin returned to Brunton to make his fourth jump, another static line jump from 3500 feet. His aim was to fulfill the mandatory number of static line jumps from 3500ft so that he could take things a step further with jumps from 10,000ft and freefalling.

We are all deeply saddened at losing Colin. He will always be remembered as a fun-loving, caring friend with a love for life and his friends and family. May he rest in peace.

Read what John (father), Helen (girlfriend) and Richard (best friend) had to say about Colin. Alternatively go to the messages section to read other messages.

If you have any stories you would like to tell of times you shared with Colin, please contact us using the link below.
Thankyou.