Laurence Page R.I.P.

Laurence was an ordinary person. He worked in the BBC gramophone library, some of my colleagues had known him for 17 years. I didn't know him before the cancer got into him, but you never felt this made any difference. Through all the pain, the operations and the long, slow, painful decline, he always seemed to maintain himself despite everything. The cancer ate away at his flesh, but it never touched his soul, and he was inspiring because of it, because if he could maintain his dignity and humour going through all that, what excuse do any of us have to do otherwise through our infinitely lesser woes? It's a relief for him that he's not suffering anymore, and a terrible loss to the rest of us that he's no longer here.