“Pokémon GO changed my life”

Like seemingly everyone else during the heady summer of 2016, Matthew Lowry was utterly captivated by Pokémon GO.

A Pokémon fan since childhood, Lowry was playing Niantic’s location-based blockbuster right from day one. He quickly worked the game into his daily routine, even walking the long way home from work so he could catch a few extra Pokémon along the way.

One night in September, however, he found himself on a sliver of battery, unable to play. He took a quicker route home instead, and as he turned a blind corner on a tight stretch of road, he collided with a slow-moving car.

It was all very quick; Lowry quickly and amicably exchanged details with the driver, and he wasn’t too badly hurt. Or so he thought.

A precautionary hospital visit the next day escalated quickly, and it was decided that he’d need spinal surgery and at least a year off work to recover from the accident.

“There’s quite a bit of wallowing that comes after something like this…if you let it get to you, you’re not going to recover – especially with the year-long timeline they gave me,” Lowry tells us.

His rehabilitation plan was mostly based on hitting walking targets every week. So Pokémon GO proved to be the perfect motivator. “The incentive to go out walking in the rain and snow wasn’t really there,” says Lowry. “But the game pushed me. It helped massively. And it gave me a reason to persevere.”

Thanks to Pokémon GO, Lowry was back at work within six months – half the projected recovery time. But that’s just the start of his story.

Throughout his recovery, Lowry continued to build on the Pokémon GO fan communities he’d set up just before his accident. Through these, he became close friends with three other players – Tom Lester, Steve Ratcliffe and Steve Wittkowski. Or “Tommy and the two Steves,” as Lowry puts it.

“Tommy would always have two phones because he was playing Ingress [Niantic’s first location-based game] – so he became known as ‘Tommy Two Phones’,” he continues.

“Then he came out for a social event with us – we hold them every month after our community day – and he became one of the gang. From that point on, he’d be everywhere with us. If we were planning on going on holiday he’d be right there with us, if we’d do a local quiz night for charity he’d be there. He was family to us, really.”

Matthew, Tommy and the two Steves also started to save up the money to attend the planned Pokémon GO Fest event in Yokohama, Japan. “Japan was like the ultimate destination for Tommy – he’d always wanted to go,” says Lowry.

Sadly, in 2019, Tommy fell seriously ill with an inoperable form of bowel cancer. His diagnosis was terminal. Reeling from the news, Lowry felt that he needed to cement the bond between the four friends forever. He joked that it’d be fun to design a tattoo that incorporated Tommy’s Pokémon GO username and – of course – two phones.

It may have started as a joke, but within weeks, Matthew and the two Steves were freshly tattooed and heading over to show Tommy their very real, very permanent tribute to him.

“We went up to show him and he loved them – he laughed so much,” says Lowry. “Sadly he passed the next day. But it was really, really amazing that he got to see them.”

“He’s still with us every day,” continues Lowry. “When we hold events we have Tommy tributes and things like that. All of those people… we’d never have met without the game.”

With the blessing of Tommy’s family, the three close friends are hoping to scatter some of Tommy’s ashes at the Pokémon GO Fest in Yokohama, should the event return some day.

And Lowry continues to be an integral part of Leeds’ Pokémon GO community. “Without Pokémon GO, I don't know how long I would have been recovering,” he adds.

“And I wouldn’t have met my amazing friends that took care of me. I'm extremely grateful for what Niantic have done for the community, and more appreciative than you could ever know.”

Pokémon GO

Epic AR adventure & online RPG

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