On Friday, May 30 I received a phonecall to tell me that, after suffering with leukaemia since the turn of the year, my closest friend was now considered beyond medical help and would be dead within a couple of hours. This big, mountainous human being was drawing his last breaths and I could only sit and wait for the next phonecall to confirm such a grim inevitable. It turned out he had quite a few breaths left in him and he would keep us waiting until the following day. But in the end, that end came – much too soon…