'just being in nature was part of our life’
Marc and I were together over 20 years before he sadly passed and we were very much an outdoors family. Marc was in Mountain Rescue, he’s always been involved in the outdoors, so as a family we did a lot of wild camping, trekking, that kind of thing.
We used to always be going camping, like wild camping was our thing. I know it’s not for everyone, but we just found that nicer and more natural and the kids loved it. We took the kids camping from being babies, babes in arms, and the kids just used to love it. Yeah, like I say, when I met Marc, he was very much an outdoorsy person. For our last wedding anniversary, we climbed Scafell together in horrendous conditions.
We’ve got so many memories together as a family and before the kids. You know, before kids you do a lot more, don’t you? You can get out and do all the big walks, but it didn’t stop us once we had our kids, we just still went and the first little mountain George climbed when he was three was Cat Bells and we were always at the Lakes and just being in nature it was part of our life.
When I met Marc, I mean he always called me a ‘townie’ because I’m from originally North Shields, but when I met Marc, he was a County Durham lad and I moved that way to be with him. So, we had a lot more access straight onto fells and you were just minutes from a hike or a walk. So, we did a lot more when I moved there and he brought me more, I don’t know. I always had it in me that I wanted to be around nature and I always did stuff like that, but he brought that out of me more.
I learned a lot from him, a lot of skills. Like the lighting fires and all the rest – he’s taught me a lot. How to put your tarp up right, so it’s not going to fall down! Yeah, and just guiding the boys on the right path and for all the stuff that I think they need to know. If you were in a situation like, do you remember that big storm we had? We were off grid for a week down in the valley where we lived at the time and we just got all the camping gear out and lived off grid for a week. And Marc was just so resourceful. He actually hooked up his car battery to the boiler so we could get some hot water. I don’t know how on earth he did that. And if he didn’t know how to do something, he’d just learn.
People used to say if we’re going to be in a situation where the world was going to end we’d want to be with the Tomlinsons, cause they’d just know what to do. So yeah, he’s taught me a lot and I’ll always have that. And the boys will as well.
Marc tragically died of a sudden heart attack. He was actually away wild camping with his brother in the Borders. We didn’t know he had an underlying heart problem, so he went off camping. He ended up passing away in nature, which is, I think, so fitting for him. I can’t imagine it being any other way, really.
Wild weather always reminds me of him. When Marc first died, I’d recently got into running and running was a massive help for me when he first passed. I used to go up on the fells and just run and particularly in the wild weather because I felt connected to him being in the elements. He loved wild weather, he often would go on winter camping trips with friends, with his brother. That was just what he did. But yeah, being in the elements, particularly the wind and the rain, that reminded me of him.
He would have been devastated [about the felling of Sycamore Gap] He’d been up there so many times. I’m sure they’d done a few exercises with Mountain Rescue up there. Well, I think everyone’s been as a kid and seen it. Obviously, the generation of children now won’t get to go. Well, they can go to the site, but the tree’s not there. Yeah, he would have been horrified that someone had done that. You just can’t get your head round it, can you? Then you just think, well, what are all the repercussions from that?
There’s going to be all these amazing projects. And I think sometimes, especially with things like grief, a lot of good can come from sometimes what you think is really bad. Like the ripple effect, isn’t it? I think that’s really important. Not that it’s taken away from anything that’s happened, but the good that comes from it, that’s really important. It’s about your perspective isn’t it? You can just sit and wallow about all the bad stuff that’s going on but, and overlook all the really good stuff, the little stuff that actually is the big stuff. I think that’s what we sometimes don’t see. You’ve just got to try and change your perspective sometimes. That’s what you have to do, isn’t it?
Louise Tomlinson was interviewed in 2025 for the Trees of Hope Project.