A move, a routine check-up with a new doctor and then the heartbreaking news that changed Geoff Thompson's world forever. The six letter word that destroys so many lives. He had cancer.
The 61-year-old has been South Shield's chairman since 2015 and saved the club from extinction by building them a new home in the seaside town on the south bank of the River Tyne, turning a crowd of around 200 into an average gate. of more than 2,000.
But after surgery and the chilling diagnosis that he could die, Thompson has had to reevaluate everything and prioritize his family over his childhood obsession. Reluctantly, South Shields are up for sale.
"I do it with a heavy heart," says Thompson, who gave this interview not because he wants people to feel sorry for him, but because he wants to find someone who can finish what he started.
"We have made good progress with promotions and infrastructure investments, but unfortunately this time last year I was diagnosed with cancer, completely out of the blue.
"I had surgery in March. I'm not completely out of the woods yet. I hope the surgery was a success, but I am still being tested and there is always a risk of recurrence. I hope not..."
Thompson had once dreamed of taking his hometown club back to the Football League and after four promotions in nine years the Mariners have risen to the National League North, two levels below the English Football League. It is the same division as Scunthorpe, Darlington, Scarborough and Blyth Spartans.
They won their last promotion under former Sunderland and England striker Kevin Phillips and are currently eighth in the table. Former Sunderland and Middlesbrough star Julio Arca was in the dugout but was sacked on Wednesday after one win in their last seven league games.
In a proud city, home to the Sand Dancers (as the city's residents are affectionately known), which like so many others is often ignored and forgotten, the football club has been a beacon of light amid the gloom of neglect. Thompson won't let it die. If he cannot remain its benefactor and figurehead, he remains its champion.
The story continues
"It scares you when you hear that word cancer, absolutely," he continued, the memory of that day forcing him to lower his gaze and look away as he composed himself. "I had the operation in London and at the first consultation I told the surgeon how scared I was about the operation.
'He said, 'Don't worry, if anything goes wrong she will cry (pointing to my wife), we will all be very upset, but you won't know about it because then you will be dead.'
"It wasn't quite what I wanted to hear to be honest. But he added: 'You have a serious form of cancer, the tumor is still encapsulated and hopefully we can deal with it.
"I hadn't been to the doctor in six years, but I had moved to be closer to my father, who has now passed away, so I changed operating theatres. They called me for a routine check-up and blood tests. It's my prostate.
"I had no symptoms other than having to get up in the middle of the night to pee, which I put down to the fact that I liked a glass of wine and that I was in my 60s. I got the test on Tuesday and the doctor called me on Thursday and said my PSA was through the roof. That was it, several tests, scans and it was cancer."
Anyone who heard these words knows what happened next. There was a lot of emotion. His family was traumatized. Faced with his own sense of mortality, knowing that time was precious, Thompson had to make some changes. Make sure whatever time he had left was spent on more than just a non-league football club.
"We have had four promotions. we saved the club from oblivion," Thompson said without any hint of boasting. "We have invested in infrastructure. We had a 3G field, a separate training area and a new stand built. Emotionally and financially, I am fully invested in it.
'It's about that cliché, I think. I'm a local businessman who has done quite well and I wanted to give back to my local community. Unfortunately, I had the rug pulled out from under me. I think we have a club worth buying.
"I need to recalibrate and rethink how I spend my time and what my priorities are. I hope I'm cured, but you can't be sure. It made me reassess my life, I think.
"I do feel my health and my age, I am approaching 62, it is time to pass the baton to someone else.
Like so many others, South Shields is not just where Thompson founded energy consultancy Utilitywise. comes from, it has defined who he is. This also applies to the football club.
"I'm a South Shields lad and educated in the North East," he explained. "I went to Sunderland University and Newcastle University, my business interests were all in the North East.
"I still live in South Tyneside, my family still live in and around South Shields. My late father used to take me to our old Simonside property with my late uncle. When I discovered the predicament, the team was homeless in 2015 and relegated to playing our games in front of 200 people in Peterlee, 30 miles south. The club was on the brink of extinction. I couldn't let it happen."
And he can't let that happen again. He is looking for a buyer and has some cautious interest from America. But unlike Wrexham, which was bought by Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and turned into a world-famous soap opera thanks to a Disney documentary, it's difficult to find the right people or person.
"We're right between Sunderland and Newcastle," Thompson said proudly. "In fact I would say watching the South Shields game is the only place where you will see Newcastle and Sunderland fans standing shoulder to shoulder and there is no evidence of trouble.
"We have three Academy sides, we have an international academy in partnership with Sunderland Uni where international students can come here and play football while they study. We are no longer in survival mode.
"If you look at the history of the club, the late 1920s. South Shields were in the old Second Division and defeated Chelsea and Manchester United. Unfortunately the club went bankrupt in 1930 and moved to Gateshead. It was reformed in 1936 and unfortunately went bankrupt again in 1974. I was just trying to make sure it didn't happen a third time.
"If it wasn't for my health, I would have tried to keep moving forward. We are a city of almost 100,000 inhabitants. South Tyneside has a population of 150,000. My view has always been that the club belongs at least in the National League and possibly the EFL. It was never a blind ambition or ego trip, it's about getting to where I felt we belonged.
"I would have given it a few more years, but I have to be faithful to my wife Andrea, my children and my eight grandchildren."
But what happened at Wrexham could be a bigger hindrance as people have unrealistic expectations of what a club like South Shields needs.
"We've had a number of approaches," Thompson continued. "But what makes the headlines is what happened at a club like Wrexham.
"Unfortunately I'm not talking to a Ryan Reynolds type, but there is a lot of interest in English football clubs in America. But no, we're not talking to a Beyonce or a Taylor Swift, even though we'd love to. That would be great.
"I've been thinking of all the famous Sand Dancers and Sir Ridley Scott is the first name that comes to mind. But he didn't answer the phone. I'll have to get in touch...
'The risk is that people think you need Hollywood money to do this, but you don't. I did a lot of the shovel work, the one-time costs. The ground is suitable for the National League and also a small step for the EFL rating. You don't need to spend large amounts of money, we just need an owner who can move forward with what we have started."
The search continues.
