“Live as if you were to die tomorrow,

Learn as if you were to live forever.”

                                                           Mahatma Gandhi

Ian died suddenly on the 9th February 2021 at the age of 72 due to heart problems.

He was a gregarious and larger than life character, a sociable man with a real sense of adventure and zest for life. The picture on the front of the book is of him arriving at his surprise 70th party and realising that over a 100 friends and family were there. He was thrilled and would have wanted a “wake“ to reflect that. We are hoping that once the current restrictions are over we will have a memorial for him.

Ian was a man who had touched a lot of lives and we were overwhelmed by the messages from friends, family and work colleagues, with a lot of people saying that they would have liked to pay their respects at his funeral.

COVID only allowed for 30 people to attend a socially distanced funeral and for it to be only half an hour long. We therefore had to adapt to the regulations in order to include as many people as possible who had memories of him. As the eulogy could only be 20 minutes long we have developed a long eulogy to include the memories of his friends and family which will accompany this online remembrance book. This has already been partially populated with the words and memories that a number of you have already sent to us for you to read and add to if you wish.

The funeral was also videoed, and this is shared with you along with a photo tribute that we feel captures some of Ian’s achievements and personality.

We hope that this in a small way gives Ian the farwell that he would have liked, and you a chance to think and speak about him, which you may have missed because of the current COVID situation.

Our thanks to you all for your kind words and sentiments, which we are truly touched by.

Resh, Syimah and Hassan