It is with great sadness that I must share the news that Mark Thompson, TheCat, passed away last weekend. The details are still a little sketchy but it seems that Mark suffered a heart attack whilst in his new home on Shetland.

Mark's boundless enthusiasm and endless optimism will be well known to everyone who knew him. Despite all the knocks he suffered (including four previous heart attacks&#33 he was always looking towards the next challenge.

Mark was attracted to geocaching as a way to increase his exercise whilst still feeding his technical mind and, like everything, he embraced it wholeheartedly. Anyone who has met him will remember his enthusiasm for the sport.

Perhaps his biggest contribution to caching in the UK was the setting up and running of GeocacheUK, a platform used by many UK cachers. For a while also Mark supported us all by providing a geocaching merchandise service, making it possible for us to get our caching stuff cheaper than before.

Mark was always finding ways of putting his talents to good use to help others. Many of you will have caught him on one of his charity "Fox Hunt" caches. (His eagerness to be caught making him known as the kamikaze fox&#33

I'm sure you will agree with me that the UK caching community will miss Mark "TheCat", and join with me in expressing our deepest sympathies and condolences to Mark's family and friends.

Cheers Mark!
Ian

[I'll post details of funeral arrangements etc as soon as I hear them]