I met Ali (I never did get round to calling him the more grown up “Al” despite his requests), on my first day at Plymouth Business School. It was actually the second day overall but I had missed the first one because I was trying out (unsuccessfully) for the University Football Team. He thought that made me cool, but it quickly became clear that he was much cooler than me. Unfortunately by that time he was stuck with me.

Uni days are a special time. I’ll always remember the nights in Ritzy, Powerhouse (!) and Millennium. I’ll remember the time Ali got treated for malaria when he had typhoid, who’d have thought Derriford Hospital wouldn’t be experts in tropical disease?

I’ll also remember fondly the group assignments. Our group always consisted of Ali, Jay, me, Potsie, Ralph Malph and The Fonz – they were happy days (that’s a Simpsons joke and Ali would have appreciated that). One assignment was the “Krispy Bread Heads” task when another member of the group’s impromptu rap left Ali cringing so badly he visibly distanced himself from the rest of us. I’m fairly certain that his legendary disagreement with Jay at the end of a research task for a local ice cream manufacturer lost us all a few marks.

Then the London days… the time of our lives (until we all got married and had kids, obviously). Every weekend the self-named “awesome foursome” – Ali, Alec, Jay and I hit the town. Most evenings ended with Ali’s grey shirt drenched in shots and him taking an “Ali cab” home. The following days were spent in front of a Sky Planner loaded with Arnie and Van Damme movies.

One of my favourite weekends involved a trip to my home town of Sittingbourne to watch some non league football. After the game, our raucous support was rewarded with the Sittingbourne manager buying us a crate of beers. The next morning we went to watch my team Crystal Palace play Liverpool in the FA Cup. When I arrived, Ali presented me with a tin of dog food because, as he put it, “you’re my Pal”. I mean, it was a ridiculous thing to do (not least because I had to get rid of it immediately to get into the ground) but it has always stuck with me.

In the last year, since Ali told us about his diagnosis a few of us from Uni have taken part in Zoom quizzes. Ali was always in good spirits, despite what he was going through, and as ill as he was he still nearly always won them.

It is so tremendously sad he has left us so early. He was extremely successful in his career but more importantly, he has a beautiful family. But I know I speak for all his friends when I promise that we will be there whenever Kate and Felix need us and that we will make sure Felix knows what a great guy his Dad was.

He was my Pal and I will miss him.