Last summer, my workmate Andy and I went on a bike tour of Scotland together on our plucky little 125s. A brilliant time was had. Laughs, spills, and anyone complaining got to be Charley (Boorman) for the day.
Like myself, Andy was planning to sit his test and move up to a Big Boy bike this spring, either a Suzuki Bandit or CBR600. He took a week off, and I was looking forward to telling him that I'd passed my theory and Mod 1 when he came back.
Last week, Andy's mother called him in sick after his holiday. We assumed he'd just got a bad dose of the cold that was going around. After a week with no news, we were shocked to hear that he had been taken into hospital, and that he had cystic fibrosis.
We found it hard to believe; cystic fibrosis is a chronic hereditary condition for which there is no cure, and which is usually debilitating and eventually fatal. Andy always seemed so healthy, and had never mentioned it to anyone outside his family, never complained about it or made an issue of it, not once.
With treatment and good luck, people of Andy's age with cystic fibrosis can live on into their 30s or later.
Andy was not lucky. He died on Tuesday night aged 26.
Andy will be sadly missed by all who knew him. I will remember him fondly as a gentleman, and the best of bike buddies.
