Dear Friends,
I expect you will have heard by now that Johnny Collins , my great friend and singing partner of 35 years, passed away on Monday July 6th shortly after 8am (bst) in Gdansk.
I am writing to let all his friends know that he suffered no pain at the end and was relaxed and comfortable in hospital when he suffered a massive heart attack (at least the 10th of his life - his 1st was in the 1950's). Pat Sheridan and I were sharing a hotel room with him and he woke us at 6am Polish time (5am bst) and asked us to take him to hospital as he wasn't feeling well. His pulse was racing and he was short of breath. We immediately called a taxi from hotel reception (we were told an ambulance would take longer) and within minutes we were speeding through Gdansk and arriving at Nicolas Copernicus Hospital. He was seen to straight away with ECG and Chest X-ray and wheeled to a ward in Cardiology where they did various tests (blood pressure etc) the results of which all seemed normal to him as an ex-medic. He was chatting to us about this and said he felt safe now as the hospital was very clean and his heart monitor screen looked OK. He joked with us saying 'you will let me know if I flatline won't you'. We made him comfotable, half sitting, with his backrest and mobile phone by his bed so he could call Joyce later when she got up (it was too early he said).The doctor said he would have to stay in a couple of days for observation and may need to be transferred to another hospital for better Cardiography.
There was a picket line across the road at a government building and we watched through the window and reported the action to him as the TV crews turned up to interview them.
We were then asked to stand outside the ward while they did further tests and while we were there he arrested and the crash team were called. We watched them pumping his chest for about 10 minutes, the door was slightly open and we were just a few feet away outside.They then came out and told us that he was gone. I called Joyce immediately with the terrible news. It was then 9.10am Polish time (8.10 bst).
We were then taken to talk to the Cardiologist about formalities, post mortem etc.
I've just got back from Poland and spent a few hours with Joyce returning his belongings.
I'm sure all his friends would want to know that the last days of his life were happy ones. The previous weekend he'd been singing at Braunston Canal Festival, Northamptonshire and at a concert in Watford with Eric Bogle. We'd been in Poland since Wednesday July 1st and all our concerts had gone extremely well (he laughed about his 'celebrity status' in Poland).
He was singing well and seemed fine apart from using his spray inhaler quite frequently.
On Sunday July 5th we spent the whole day out on the Baltic sailing with the Tall Ships parade of sail which was spectaclar. We sang shanties to the ships crews as we passed. The weather was glorious and Johnny sat on deck all day, apart from when singing, had a meal and thoroughly enjoyed himself. In the evening we did a great concert together with Pat Sheridan in the Zejmans Club, Gdansk. We did three 40 minute spots with a packed audience and had everyone singing along with our shanties and sea songs. The concert was recorded and we talked to the organisers at the end about making an album of it.
The Club Commodore had made a toast with Dutch Geneva earlier so Johnny insisted on returning the toast to the Commodore with 'Reach for the Gin' by Mike Sparks. It was to be his last song apart from us all singing Stan Hugill's 'Old Maui' all the way home in the taxi.
He will be greatly missed by us all but I think he went the way he would have wanted.
I'll keep people posted on Funeral arrangements which will be delayed by legal procedures.
I know all of you will be thinking of his family at this time, especially Joyce.

Goodbye Mate,

Jim Mageean

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Message From Jim Mageean - 10th July 2009