to my gorguss lil cousin philip, 1year today since u past away, so glad i got the chance to see u and talk to u and tell u i love u, spent an hour with ur mum n dad today, oh how they cope is beyond me, although in there eyes i see there broken, but they keep u alive as best they can with chat n memorys, rest in peace my darlin cousin, ur dearly loved and missed, all my love, donna, xxxx

I had the pleasure of knowing Phil through work. I was always struck by his professionalism even during some of the hardest times of his illness. Many of our clients were terribly sorry to hear of Phil's passing and indeed one has asked me to pass on this message:- ‘I was saddened today to hear of the death of Philip at only 32. Over the past few years Philip had been a valuable member of the analytical project team working on some of the key development drugs for the pharmaceutical companies I myself work for. Philip’s contribution has meant that we have been able to progress some of these drugs to registration with the regulatory authorities in good time. One of the development drugs which Philip was working on is for the prevention of heart attacks whilst another was for reducing the risk of gastric and/or duodenal ulcers in patients who require low-dose Aspirin for the prevention of cardiovascular events. It is poignant that Philip would have also been involved in the analysis of some of our drugs which are been developed for various types of cancer and although this terrible disease hastened Philip’s death at such an early age, his contribution has meant that these drugs will soon be available for patients worldwide. I’m sure Philip would have been proud of the contribution he has made to help develop these drugs which will eventually alleviate the pain of others and allow them to lead as normal life as possible.’ Phil you will be terribly missed as a member of our team.

One Saturday evening in a busy Edinburgh pub, must have been after a Six Nations rugby match, with a number of English friends, including Phil.. A 'nationalistic debate' sprung up and I was feeling like I needed to fight my Scottish corner. My rather weak end shot to this was to sing 'O Flower of Scotland', while feeling completely embarrassed. Phil then stepped up to the plate and completely trumped me by morris dancing, right there in the pub. Its not just the dancing that I remember but that he did it without an ounce of embarrassment – what a man!