Sam was born in Manchester on August 15th 1947, the eldest child of Sam and Elsie Valentine. Sam's dad worked in the shipyard on the Manchester ship canal and his mum for many years worked on her son-in-laws market stall. Sam has a sister named Linda and a younger brother named Kenneth. Prior to moving to Spain, Sam spent all of his life in the Manchester area; he was an avid Manchester United fan and up until the age of 18 would attend matches regularly. Once reaching 18, Sam decided that the players were getting too much money for their work, and so withdrew his financial support for the team... nevertheless, he was football mad! Sam and Sandra met at school in around 1964. Sam left school a year before Sandra and started work as an apprentice auto electrician... it was to be a job he would do for the rest of his working life. Sandra, on leaving school went to work as a junior secretary and they courted each other until 1969, saving all the time to buy their first house. They married at St Luke's church on April 5th 1969 and moved into the bungalow they had purchased. In 1975 Sam decided to be self employed and did this successfully until around 1998. Sam was very interested in sport, playing squash three times a week; he was also keen on badminton, playing both sports to a high level. Sam and Sandra also had a passion for horses, which they showed for around ten years. Unfortunately, Sandra had to have surgery for osteoarthritis and had to have a hip replacement, which put an end to their work with the horses. During this time they also kept dogs, one in particular was a Rottweiler named Cally. In 1996, Sam unfortunately suffered a heart attack, from which he made a good recovery, but he was unable to continue playing his sports. Sam then decided that being self employed was causing him too much stress and wanted to stop running his own business. One of his customers amazingly offered him employment, so Sam joined and worked for this company until he retired in 2006. After Sam's heart attack and Sandra's hip replacement, the bought another Rottweiler, with a view to showing her. They had a modicum of success with her, managing a lifelong qualification for Cruft's, and she is with Sandra to this day. Sam was a keen gardener and used to grow all his own vegetables, he was extremely clever with his hands, excellent at D.I.Y, and could make almost anything. He loved people, could 'Talk for England', was always 'very up', was chirpy and loved cracking jokes... Sam was a peoples person. Sandra's brother Ian had bought a house in Spain, and played a part in encouraging Sam and Sandra's move to this area of Spain for their retirement. Ian was building a kit car [ a viper] and Sam was doing the electrics for him. Prior to Ian moving over here, he moved in with Sam and Sandra for what was going to be a few weeks.. it ended up being many months, but enabled Sam to finish off the electrics. The vehicle then came over here with Ian. Sam and Sandra started planning for their move here, buying their villa on the Country Club off plan, and set about selling their home in the U.K.;their house sold and they arrived in Spain in 2006. Sam and Ian bought themselves motorbikes, but Sam's love for motorcycling was to be very short. Within a week of the purchase of his bike, he skidded on some loose gravel and fell off it; the bike had around 30 km on the clock. His biking days were over and his comment was 'I'll stick to cars'!! Sam absolutely loved his life here in Spain and so did Sandra. They had three really happy retirement years here together, until the diagnosis of the cancer last May. He was so brave during his illness and fought so hard, but didn't manage to win the fight. The many cards sent to Sandra tell the story of Sam and how much he was loved and appreciated by so many people.. everyone will miss you so much. God bless you Sam.