He went to Victoria School, where there were four Richards in his primary class and at the age of five was struck down by a condition called Stevens Johnson syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that affected his chest and metabolism. Rushed immediately to hospital, he woke up 10(?) weeks later looking like a skinned rabbit, as his mother told me and of course it was a completely life-changing event. Despite that, Richard did his best to do everything his friends did –he climbed trees and had massive games of hide and seek all round Newhaven with his friend Richard Little. He joined the cubs and then the scouts; he went to scout camp and despite his condition, he was foolhardy and brave. Richard always wanted to get ahead of everyone and when he got there, he led from the front – sometimes with dire consequences like the time he went down Auchinleck Brae on his bike, missed the sharp right hand turn at the bottom and went straight into a metal fence, face first. His dad Brian said that he knew it was a metal fence because when Richard came home he could clearly see the marks of two and a half of the bars on his face. And then there was the camping holiday when he was 7 and just as they were unpacking the car and setting up the tent, Richard managed to get his head in under the tailgate and got the full force of it as his dad closed it on his head – sometimes he dared too much.