Woke this morning feeling much the same when I went to bed last night at 2am. Feeling as though I'd been hit with a sandbag. But after reading these comments and high regard we felt for Drew, even if we never actually met him, I actually feel more positive now. Yes, he was too young to have died but he will be remembered for how he was, and if you choose to believe it, he has gone to a better place where tarps don't leak and crappy Silverline tools don't exist and everyone has a Woodlore knife.
I met Drew for the first time last year at the Moot. I thought Cameron, Eric Methven's grandson, was him. Cameron was quite indignant that I thought that!

It was the big cowboy hat that threw me. Later in the day Drew made an appearance and it was "Ello Biker mate! Where's Bushcraft Betty at?" With an arm around my shoulder like we were long lost buddies, and this BCUK forum does make you feel as though you know that person, even having never met them face to face.
While everyone seems to have an enthusiasm level of about 5, Drew seemed to run his at about 11. He was 25 years old going on 14 and didn't seem to be bothered in the least by being like that. While at The Moot I dug out a bottle of Rochester Ginger wine, the dark smooth type, not the paint remover one. Anyway he had a swig of that after I passed it around at the Naughty Corner and promptly took off with it thinking it was the best alcoholic drink on the planet. I didn't have the heart to tell him it is 0% proof, a joke most of us shared but didn't tell him. But he liked it and made me happy that he did.
Just those couple of weeks seeing him about the camp with those bits of white string he had poking out the bottom of his baggy shorts that he laughingly called legs was a comical but welcome sight... sometimes, and a quick hide behind the tree in case he sees me, at other times. He could wear you out just being nearby. But for all his faults he had an innocence and purity in him that many people lack. As has been said the world is emptier for his passing.
I will miss you Drew, I just hadn't realised how much until I wrote this. Take care buddy.