I rang John Probst to tell him the sad news, and he reminded me of the following story:John, a former EBU director, who loved Max very much, had a massive stroke which left him virtually blind and unable to walk about ten years ago. Over a beer on the Friday evening at Brighton, Max and I decided that it would be really good for John to come down to Brighton and see a bunch of his old friends. You go and get him and I’ll sort things out this end, Max said.I dropped John off outside the Hotel and Max met him and walked him inside. He’d arranged a small lunch with Tony Priday and some of the other directors.Max bought John a present: some large index playing cards which, painstakingly, John learned to read and over the next six months he began to play bridge again.John told me this morning how in that one afternoon, Max changed his life. He encouraged him not to give up on everything and gave him some stern encouragement to try to play bridge again. The kindness he showed him changed his outlook on life.Condolences, Max will be sadly missed.