One of the North West’s most respected dealmakers has died after a long battle with cancer.
Andy Thomas, whose career included spells at Maven Capital Partners and more recently YFM Equity Partners, died on Wednesday surrounded by his loved ones.
His wife Mia Hailwood took to LinkedIn to break the news.
She wrote: “It’s with a broken heart that I have to announce that my beautiful, brave husband Andy Thomas died on Wednesday surrounded by people who loved him dearly.
“I’m in the process of arranging Andy’s funeral and a celebration of his life and will share the details once finalised.
“I want to thank Andy’s friends and colleagues who have been so kind and supportive over the last few months to both of us. It was a huge comfort to know how many people loved and cared about him.”
Chris Boyes, a partner at BGF, said: “I worked with Andy at RBS many years ago. He was both kind and generous.”
Lauren-Jade Roberts, corporate finance director at Cleveland Scott, wrote on LinkedIn: “Andy was always so kind with his time and a great laugh to be around.”
Advisor and investor Simon French added: “I always enjoyed catching up with Andy because he was just such a great guy to spend time with and the chat always broadened from business matters to the more important things.
“He had a great perspective on life and the world is a poorer place without him in it.”
One of the good ones
James Wild, a partner at RSM UK, said: “Andy was without doubt one of the good ones, a great man and he will be sorely missed.”
Martin Johnson, COO of Empire Global Finance, said: “Andy was a lovely guy.”
In 2024, Thomas took part in the Vitality 10k race in aid of The Christie Charity in Manchester despite being treated for stage four cancer.
Speaking to BusinessCloud at the time he said he was first diagnosed with a rare type of cancer – known as olfactory neuroblastoma – in 2017 after he began suffering with the symptoms of what he thought was a heavy cold.
“When I first got it I’d actually had it for ages and not realised,” he said. “I’d been suffering from what I thought was a cold, and then thought was sinusitis, and then chronic sinusitis – when actually it was a large tumour that had been blocking my naval cavity.
“We all get so wrapped up in how we busy we are and self medicate because we haven’t got time to go to the doctors – or at least that’s what I did.
Video calls can wait
“I’m not saying it would have made any difference to me, but honestly those emails and video calls can probably wait a few hours while you get properly checked out.
“Olfactory neuroblastoma is actually quite a rare form of cancer – there are 20-30 cases in the UK each year – so you’re literally more likely to get struck by lightning than catch this thing!
“I first got it back in 2017, and I’ve had several major surgeries as well as radio and chemo since then as it spread into my lymph nodes.
“Each time it was thought to have been curable and that I’d been free of it after each occurrence, but this latest time it’s spread to multiple places, unfortunately.”
- Photo copyright Mia Hailwood