A New Dimension for a Time Lord

Today, getting ready for a funeral, Richard brought me news of the death of a school friend - one of those days. Mary Tamm was the girl with thick plaits who sat next to me at primary school and together with another friend called Olga we won scholarships to senior school. Mary had the voice of an angel and I cannot to this day at Christmas sing Three Kings From Orient Lands Afar without remembering her clear voice when she sang the solo in our last year Christmas concert for parents. She went on to do many things, one of which was to be Romana, a Time Lord in the Doctor Who Series in the 70s. But perhaps the other thing I remember most strongly is when, as lower sixth formers, we were gathered in assembly and heard an appeal for Cancer Research. That was the moment moment when we were told the real facts of life - that one in four of us would get cancer and that one in three of us would die of cancer. Well disciplined as we were it was the hardest challenge not to turn our heads to take stock of the full portent of those words. Please remember your local charity for Cancer Research and Care.