A lot of you have been customers of ours for many years now. In fact, some of you have been with us since the very beginning – 2005, would you believe!
And so many of you will also be familiar with Tim Wakeling. Tim founded the company in 2005, and from then until October 2019 he ran The Helpful Book Company, alongside writing many books and recording the video courses.
Tim wrote this email newsletter for 14 years and I know a lot of you felt a connection with him. He regularly shared snippets from his life outside of the company and his love for his boys Alastair and Edward.
Back in 2019, Tim stepped back from the company and we became employee owned. His plan was to study at Leeds University and gain a masters degree in Entrepreneurship and Business. Eventually his dream was to lecture in the subject – after all, he certainly knew his stuff!
But earlier this year, Tim was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. He underwent treatment, including chemotherapy and an operation to remove the tumour, but sadly the cancer began to spread quickly. In late November, Tim passed away, very peacefully, in a lovely hospice with his wife Julie by his side.
We appreciate you may not have been customers or joined this newsletter when Tim was here. But given that Helpful Books wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Tim, we felt we ought to share this news with you all.
Julie took over writing these newsletters when Tim stepped away from the business in 2019, so a lot of you will now be familiar with Julie’s weekly email newsletters (which the rest of us have been helping her out with for the past few weeks). Understandably, Jules will be taking some time out of her weekly newsletters for a little while.
Take care and we’ll be back with you in the new year!
Best wishes from all of us here at The Helpful Book Company
“Tim was many things… husband, dad, brother, son, friend… “muzo”, geek, entrepreneur, panto villain extraordinaire… he could be crass or gentle, silly or sincere… but he was always kind, honest and loving.”
In loving memory of Tim Wakeling 1975 – 2021
If you would like to make a donation to Wheatfields Hospice in memory of Tim please click here Thank you.