My apologies for not being in touch for such a long time. My last post on here was this time last year as I returned to Kenya after a busy and enjoyable visit to the UK. My trusty “Girl Friday” Sally Pettipher has been helping run the Cornish Pirates rugby club, and that has taken her away from helping me with these updates.

Farewell to friends

Firstly, its been a tough year with the loss of some very good friends. I mention specifically Mika Andrews who was a top rugby colleague for Kenya and East Africa; John Gendall from Penzance who suffered from medical consequences of Cornish tin mining but still found time to look after the Mennaye pitch and grounds; Paul Greaves my longest known friend at the Pirates – some 70 years long – with whom I played rugby through school, Colts and Pirates Chiefs; Finally Neil Kiley who died recently and pretty suddenly, “Nellie” was known to many people as a great organizer and very keen rugby player at Nondies in Kenya.

80 Not Out

In celebration of my 80th we took over Ol’ Seki, the Hemingways safari camp, with family and my closest friends. These included Huddy and Diane; the irrepressible 91 year old Fozzie with Kimberley (known colloquially as “nurse”); Garry and Gai, Rod and Debbie and Ashwin and Amrita.

As ever at Ol Seki we saw amazing wildlife up close. All the headliners: lions, elephants, giraffe etc, many with their young.

We had a fancy dress party on the Saturday evening which brought back memories of many years of such antics with this gang, and others. Happy memories and still making new ones! Fozzie was one very tired Pirate.

Summer of Sport

In England for the summer, Jytte and I enjoyed the traditional sporting highlight of Wimbledon where we met up with John Inverdale. Invers and I are great rugby friends having both given our energies to famous English rugby teams: Pirates and Esher.

Invers was quick to point out that I am the only person he’s ever know to be let into the members’ enclosure at Wimbledon without a tie!

Coat of Arms

The image above is of my official Coat of Arms and the Evans family badge. These are part of a Patent presented to me in the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George in St Paul’s Cathedral a few weeks ago.

I am delighted the Arms bear a flamingo and rugby ball atop a ship’s wheel and include roses, strawberries and the black and gold of Cornwall. This coat of arms is personal to me and my direct descendents but the badge of two Marlins holding roses is for the wider use of the Evans family and the companies and charities with which I am involved.

Cornwall 2026

I am soon to fly back to Kenya after a long hot and thoroughly enjoyable visit to the UK, including a trip to Cornwall and the town of my birth, Penzance.

I was delighted to meet up with the Cornish Pirates coaches and attend training with the players. Jytte and I then went on to see a solid performance against a Saracens Premiership team that featured England Internationals and British and Irish Lions. They beat us 14-28 (two tries to four) but we held our own and put in some great forwards work.

Around the rugby we met up with Cornish friends. Many of us knew each other at school, and like me turned 80 in the last year. As Jytte and I have been together for nearly 50 years now, they are also some of her longest standing friends, so we thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with them all.

This past year has seen Cornish Pirates flourish in the hands of its new owners consortium, including my great friend Martin Hudson and a handful of very capable others. I remain as Life President attending Board Meetings and weekly coaches calls. Sally is now CEO and has set her sights on delivering my dream of promotion to the Premiership.

For those who follow Pirates they will have seen a lot of media coverage in the UK press, including the BBC, The Telegraph, Times and Guardian.

The first major news was new investment from the US, the first US investment in English rugby, and quite a feather in our cap.

The most recent headlines have been grabbed by the addition of TV presenter Nick Knowles to the list of Cornish Pirates shareholders. He may not be well known in Kenya, but he is a very widely recognised and respected broadcaster in the UK. He has brought a film crew with him to make a documentary about Pirates. I met him last week and he is a rugby man, a passionate supporter of Pirates and all things Cornish.

Even I was interviewed, here I am getting a microphone attached to me by the Director Matthew Skilton.

New Year’s Eve

More precious family time at New Year in Watamu, and various birthdays with fast growing up grandchildren.

THE BIG P…

Has it gone away? No.

Am I slowing its progression so I can live to 100 years old? Maybe.

It feels like a long, slow decline and as yet medical research has found no cure. However, I believe that AI, in the hands of brilliant neuroscientists, will accelerate the speed of a cure.

There is fascinating new evidence of the impact of the gut microbiome on Parkinson’s and even markers of Parkinson’s in changes in the gut. This is something that I have investigated for years as regular followers of mine will know. This may be allied to a change in a gene that is known to be linked to Parkinson’s, called GBA1. You can see more about this on the Parkinsons UK site here

Technology and AI

There is huge hope about curing the disease arising from Demis Hassabis’ work at DEEPMIND. He sorted out the protein cycle for which he got the Nobel prize in 2024. It took 200 million inputs, something that could only be done through AI.

You can find out about it in a book about him by author Sebastian Mallaby, “The Infinity Machine” is available on Amazon as an audiobook or print edition. I’ve listened to it twice and thoroughly recommend it.

While the frustration with progressive loss of mobility and the volume of my voice continues, I am grateful for the digital world and being able to type and use predictive text to speed up communication.

So, my apologies again for the long gap in an update. I am grateful to those who reached out to me personally to check I was OK. YES – I AM STILL HERE !!

I thank everyone for their best wishes and look forward to hearing from you and seeing as many of you as possible.

All the best

Dicky