Sorry. ...

Yes, I know I'm breaking all the rules by posting a photo that was taken 34 years ago...but I hope you'll forgive me.

When I was at school, I was friends with a tiny, red haired ball of energy called Mag. She was incredibly clever and talented, but above all, very kind.

After we left school, she did languages at university, and then went off to live and work in Japan. This was before we had access to the internet and sadly we lost touch. For years, I wondered what had happened to her, so one day, I wrote into a radio programme, asking if anyone knew where she was. Amazingly, her dad heard the programme, and sent me her address.

So we started writing to each other regularly....and although my life was fairly dull in the intervening years, hers had been amazing. She'd gone to the US to get a pilot's licence, and ended up marrying her trainer. They settled in Virginia, and had two lovely boys.

Then, Facebook was invented, and we were in touch more than ever. I was in awe, when Mag decided, in her forties to retrain as a nurse practioner specialising in heart problems. She's an inspiration.

However, last year she told me that she was ill with kidney cancer. Typically, she played it down and I thought that she was recovering. But this morning, her sister sent me a note to say that she's now in a hospice, heavily medicated.

If you're at all religious, can you please send a wee prayer up for my friend. She's far too young to leave her boys....

PS This is a photo from our last year at school. We're both in the middle row. I'm fourth from the left, and she's fourth from the right.