Mark Johnston, my husband and soul mate, died suddenly on February 11 2012 aged 37 years. He left us behind - his beloved young daughter Beatrice and me, his sister, parents, his adoring family-in-law, nephews and nieces, friends and colleagues. He enhanced every life that he touched. Mark was a one-off. He loved languages and travel; he lived in Paris, Japan and Australia, immersing himself in the otherness of the cultures in which he found himself (eating sea snake is believed to be one of the highlights). He loved his family, his friends and the odd pint of Guinness, and had a wicked sense of humour. His passion, though, was music. His CD and vinyl collection extended into the thousands – he listened to anything, from Al Green to Zeppelin and everything in between. He cherished his guitars and liked nothing more than a quiet Sunday afternoon in front of the fire strumming his Spanish guitar singing ‘Dream A Little Dream of You’. Mark suffered an aortic dissection in 2008 and underwent life-saving emergency heart surgery, from which he bounced back with typical positivity and verve for life. He couldn’t wait to get back to his guitar, although it was a pleasure he would be denied for a while after a post-surgical stroke meant that he couldn’t use his hand. He did, however, eventually find a way to play with his own inimitable resolve – using one of my hair bobbles to tie his thumb and forefinger together so he could hold the pick. The therapeutic benefits of music throughout Mark’s recovery were not lost on him, and with this in mind one of his ambitions for the future was to teach guitar to disadvantaged young people. Through Youth Music, I hope we can go some way to helping him achieve this ambition. Mark Johnston was an extraordinarily courageous young man. We miss him every day and in the words of one of his all-time favourite musicians Neil Young, he truly had a heart of gold.