James (Jim, OldGitJimbo) was the first-born son of Sylvia and James. His mother was a seamstress and his dad was ex-merchant navy. He was educated at St Augustine's school in Chorley and loved to play football as a teenager. He prided himself of his "heading" abilities. A keen Blackburn Rovers fan, he also enjoyed watching Premier League football, Cycling, Rugby and Darts. He was also keen on politics and 1960s music.

He worked in many different jobs over the course of his life, starting out as a mill worker in Blackburn, where he was trained to use most of the machinery and got used to working multiple shifts long into the night. He also studied at Blackburn College and eventually progressed to office work in debt management services and travel. At one point, he ran his own taxi business and became so successful that he hardly ever slept. 

He was married to Val and they had two children, Suzanne and James (Darren). He also had two grand-children. He was proud of his family and used to enjoy taking them out on road trips at the weekends. He played darts for a number of local teams and would have loved to have gone professional but his family life and the fact that his prospective sponsor died, unfortunately put paid to those ambitions.

After his marriage broke up, he moved back to Chorley from Blackburn where he spent five years caring for his dad, and then caring for his mother for eighteen years before she sadly passed away in November 2017 from a rare muscle cancer.

In 2012, he joined forces with Chrissie Fuller to form the t-shirt printing business MiTeamShirts which they ran from home right up to the beginning of April 2019, when his health started to fail seriously and the business was transferred to Chrissie.

Jim was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2018 and chose not to have chemotherapy. Instead, he chose to treat himself with herbal medicines and healthy eating and remained quite healthy for almost 12 months. He was diagnosed with metastases to the brain in November 2018 but in spite of this he continued to spend quality time with Chrissie and his good friends in the local pubs, doing what he did best, entertaining us all with his singing. He will best be remembered for his renditions of "Amore" by Dean Martin and "Jonnie, Remember Me" by Jonnie Layton. 

Only in March/April did the cancer start to get the better of him and he then had a number of hospital admissions that left him tired and drained. He was hoping to recover enough to start a course of chemotherapy that would potentially have reduced the cancer but, sadly, he was too ill.

Jim was so strong throughout the whole of his illness and was determined to try to beat the cancer, right up until the last week of his life, when the pain and breathlessness took its toll on him and he finally decided that enough was enough and that he wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. One week before his death, he held a celebration of his life and said his final goodbyes to his friends, family and fans in Pearsons, Chorley. He also managed to raise almost £300 for cancer-related charities.

Jim's legacy is one that we should always remember. Don't give up on life and keep on fighting to the end. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by everyone whose life he touched.