D telephoned yesterday evening to say that John Prosser, his father and a great man, died on Sunday, 23/4.

He was a first-class guy and friend who will be sorely missed.  Of course, I was crap at keeping in touch – but then, we are/were blokes, so what do you expect.

He had suffered with cancer for some time and had been through one bout of chemo, which, sadly, had not done the trick, however, he was due to go onto another course of an experimental kind and, in fact, had started it.  But it was just too strong.

He was quite up-front about the illness and the treatment, which did knock him for six.  But, in his emails to me, (and, towards the end, through P, his wife) he always remained positive and strong.  D said that he remained strong through to the end, and that is why he lasted longer than predicted.

I must admit, my feelings for D have gone up (and they were pretty high anyway).  Not an easy phone call to make but he was always a superb guy.  I came close to tears when he was talking, but managed to hold it back – after all, it was not me that was really suffering, not like P, D and R.

So, what of John?  He was a great guy, as I have said.  He was funny, loving, lovable, hard-working, interesting, and many more things.  But I think the most outstanding thing about him was that he was one of the few people who truly had a “heart of gold”.  He was not a nasty man in any way.  He was kind and gentle, loving and genuine.  He was a true gentleman and deserved such a title.

I’ve trawled the internet and managed to find 2 links to a story about John.  This was after he had his massive heart attack in the middle of Worcester and had recovered (thanks to much surgery).

Worcester Evening News
The BBC

I wish I could say more. 

In the meantime, my sympathies go to P, his wife, who deserved a much longer time with him, to D, who was/is, in many ways, so much like him, and, for whom I have a real affection and R, who I don’t know so well, but, I’m sure, is a great guy too – he can’t be all bad, he is John and P’s son, after all.