Last evening I (Barry Evans) watched Paul’s funeral service on line. I especially appreciated the family tributes from Gill, Paul’s brother, his son and a nephew – all meaningful and poignant.
I wanted to record some of my recollections of Paul and my contact with him.
For most of my professional career I was based in Colindale, North London so did not have close contact with Paul on day-to-day issues apart from relating to him on confidentiality concerns as he was PHE’s ‘Caldicott Guardian’. 
Thus, my memories of Paul are mainly around non-work related talks – for instance a special afternoon in Sierra Leone when we walked on a rocky beach near a lighthouse in Freetown. We spoke about the slave trade, the gross injustices of the past and the fact that in such natural beauty that existed around us, such barbarity occurred. This very meaningful time took place in 2016, before Paul’s diagnosis.
Then during 2017 I was aware of feeling that I should make contact with Paul. I had retired and there was no obvious reason to make contact. He was a very busy person and I did not want to return to a job in PHE; but the feeling of needing to contact him did not go away. I was not in touch with many people at PHE, so was unaware of Paul’s lung cancer diagnosis until I attended someone’s leaving function in the autumn of 2017. It was there I learned that Paul had been diagnosed that summer with inoperable lung cancer which had spread to other organs.  I contacted Paul and we met up and continued to meet every six weeks or so for tea and a chat, usually at the end of the working day. Paul was a very good listener and, in spite of all that he was going through, he still had time to listen to some of the issues I was struggling with in terms of our children and my own bowel cancer diagnosis and treatment. We did not always agree on some of the big issues but always, I felt really listened to and respected even when I held alternative views. These meetings continued until spring 2020 when lockdown forced different modes of communication. Paul was often in my mind as I prayed for him that he would be given strength in what he was going through.
In one of the family testimonials his son spoke of his experience of his Dad as being ‘not a great man but a good man’. My experience of Paul was that he was both, good and great, who will be sadly missed by many.