Time flies.

It's ten years this summer since my friend and colleague Ian Weir died, aged 38, soon after I became editor of The Northern Echo.

In tomorrow's edition of The Northern Echo, there is a piece by Health Editor Barry Nelson, reflecting on Ian's legacy a decade on.

Many of our readers will recall that Ian died of a heart attack after waiting nearly eight months for an "urgent" heart bypass operation.

At that time, the average waiting time for bypass surgery in this country was 12 months, compared to three months in other parts of Europe.

We successfully campaigned to bring the British waiting time in line with Europe.

Barry Nelson's piece tomorrow underlines the importance of that campaign.

The target of reducing deaths from coronary heart disease for people under 75 by 40 per cent was reached five years early - saving 22,000 lives.

I've just spoken on the phone to Ian's widow Maggie to make sure that she wouldn't be upset by a photograph in the paper tomorrow. It shows Maggie with Ian and their lovely boys Joe and Charlie on holiday in America.

She told me a moving postscript to Ian's story.

Up at Whitburn, near Sunderland, there is a bench remembering Ian, along with two other great newspapermen Ian Holland and Phil Hickey.

Ian and Phil were also friends. We worked together on The Northern Echo in the early 1980s.

Ian, who went on to edit the Sunderland Echo, died of a brain tumour and Phil, who became editor of the Shields Gazette, died of a heart attack.

Maggie heard that a couple of months back, there was a bunch of flowers tied to the bench, with a card saying: "Ian Weir, I never knew you - but because of you, I'm still alive."

So much sadness yet so much to celebrate.