We have been really lucky to have met Richard - and his family. And will be missing him immensely as one of our most ardent and prolific MDS "fighter", blogger and real advocate for this disease. We first met Richard in early 2010, when Rosalind got diagnosed with MDS, when our MDS UK Patient Support Group was still fairly new, and we were looking to improve awareness and access to treatment for patients. Already, and despite the obvious worries, queries and concerns for his daughter, Richard was looking and talking about ways to help our small organisation and the MDS patient community at large. Since then and until he passed away, Richard did whatever he could to improve issues faced by MDS patients. His and Roz's blog have been incredibly helpful to many patients facing a stem cell transplant, providing a realistic, practical, detailed, reasonable as well as comforting account of the entire process. For that alone, we are so grateful to him and his family. Richard also helped to talk to other patients, offering some reassurance when some of our members needed to talk to a fellow MDS sufferer. We had many more plans involving him and MDS patients in the region of Exeter and we'll endeveour to fulfill them in future. Richard, you'll be very much missed, but your kindness, generosity, energy and fighting spirit will be something we'll all retain and remember. It will help us to continue our work, and will assist many more patients to come, until - soon we hope - a better cure is found for this rare and devastating blood cancer. Many many thanks. We also thank all the wonderfully generous donors, who have contributed so generously to our charity. As a small organisation, working on behalf of patients with a rare disorder, it makes an immense difference to how much we can achieve in the long term. We truly appreciate your kindness and generosity. Thank you. MDS UK Patient Support Group.