Personality Profile: Gary Leeming
Born in Germany and raised in Pompey, Gary Leeming is the first person many people see when they drive into the Cathedral’s carpark. A family man, Gary and his wife Colleen have six of a family ‘split 50/50, split right down the middle’, three boys and three girls ranging from 28 to 16 years old.
Gary manages the carpark, working from his very own ‘Tardis’, the control point he mans come rain or shine, six days a week.
‘People often see me moving the cones about,’ explains Gary, ‘I get used to all sorts of ice-cream jokes like “Hey, Gary, make mine a 99”. I must have heard that one a million times. Anyway, it’s good to know I do a useful job helping people park, generally keeping an eye on things and helping to raise money for the Cathedral’.
‘Some days, major feast days for example, it gets really busy, absolutely choc-a-bloc. There’s nothing for it but to get as many in as possible, often banked up. But I still have to leave a route open for emergencies’.
‘To coin a phrase,’ he laughs, ‘I suppose you could say I count them all in and I count them all out’.