When my husband, Ian Purseglove, was born, his life expectancy was five years, and it remained so for most of his 70 years. He had a severe form of haemophilia B, then untreatable, but timely intervention by American medics who were stationed in his native Weymouth for D-day kept him alive when he was a baby. He survived childhood with his mother Winnie's loving care while his father, Bertram, served overseas with the Royal Air Force.
By his teens Ian was already disabled, but he was a prodigious musician who excelled on the piano and organ, and as parish organist at All Saints and St Peter's churches in Dorchester, he was occasionally broadcast on BBC Sunday morning radio services.
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