A year ago, almost to this date, Andy and I went to see the Stereophonics. It had been booked for a long time, before Andy was diagnosed with cancer, but he didn't let this stop him even though we'd seen the Stereophonics together several times before. He wasn't going to miss it. Andy was due to have chemotherapy the day before the gig, it was one of his first sessions, but he was determined to still go, whatever it took. On the morning of his chemo I got a text from Andy, I was surprised, he should be having chemo, not texting me. He said that the hospital had done their final checks and found his blood levels too low, and that he was going to have a blood transfusion, on Thursday, the day we were going to the O2. The Gig wasn't until the evening so we had some time, but Andy was obviously keen to get through and out of hospital as quickly as possible. Thankfully everything went to plan and I picked him up from his house about 4pm and drove to the O2, he told me of his experience. The staff nurse (Andy didn't mention if this was the one he found attractive) explained to him what would happen, it would take about 4 hours, Andy explained that he was due to see the Phonics, he knew it wasn't ideal, but that he'd been really looking forward to it and it was keeping him high in spirits. The staff nurse understood and said she'd do whatever she could, she went to one of her nurses and asked her to fetch Andy's blood to be transfused. This nurse was not so understanding. She questioned why she had to fetch the blood, when everyone else in the ward had to wait for theirs. The staff nurse simply said, 'He's 30 and has cancer, give him a break'. Andy also spoke of his life insurance, and how it contributed towards his mortgage payment as he was now earning less. He was glad that it was one thing less for Addie to worry about whilst he was being treated. The insurers were also happy to help if they moved to a house, something Andy and Addie had been planning on doing after getting married. We got to the o2 and walked from the car park. Andy had brought a crutch with him incase he needed it to aid his walking, but he said how he felt so well and full of energy, the best he had felt in a long time. We got inside and went to Frankie and Benny's for dinner, beating the crowds. Afterwards, we wanted to try and change our tickets, to get some access seating incase Andy needed to leave for any reason, quickly and without disturbing others. We found the ticket place and explained that we needed different seats, the man behind the desk misunderstood and asked if we wanted to swap our tickets for Standing tickets, we really didn't want that! I explained again and he gave us tickets for an access area, I was pleased for Andy that we had seats that would suit him better, and he would be able to enjoy the gig more because of it. We found our new seats, in their own box-like area at the top of level 1, just round from the stage. They were very good seats, we had lots of room, and you could turn the seats to face the stage so you didnt get neck ache. Andy was, despite the under-lying reason, quite proud he'd been able to get us the better seats. We sat back and watched the gig, it was amazing, somehow they astonished us with their performance, we'd been dazzled by them before and wondered if they could top previous shows, they didn't disappoint. After the show we walked back to the car, allowing those in a mad rush past us. We left the car park and listened to the Stereophonics latest album on the journey home, we both agreed on the same track that we didn't like, it wasn't as good as the rest, surprised it even made the album. We talked about playing the guitar, Andy didn't play as much as he wanted, I was learning, he offered to help me, sadly we never did play our guitars together. Andy stayed awake the whole way home, despite the long day he had. He knew he'd most likely pay for it the next day, but he wouldn't have done anything different, there was no way he wouldn't have gone. I'm proud of how he fought and his determination, I had my mate with me. The next time they play just won't be the same, although I'm sure he'll still be there, watching it with me. "And all the friends lay down the flowers Sit on the banks and drink for hours Talk of the way they say him last Local boy in the photograph today He's gone away."