A year on how fitting that Rob Burrow should put it best when recalling the life and legacy of fellow rugby great Doddie Weir.
League legend Burrow is living with the same cruel disease which claimed the towering Scotsman, robbing sport of one of its great characters. Inspired by Weir, who fought motor neurone disease so bravely before his death aged 52 a year ago on Sunday, Burrow continues to raise funds and awareness.
“For me Doddie was a warrior,” he says. “People have heard me call him ‘my friendly giraffe’. He towered above me in height but he also lifted me up and gave me that reason to stay positive and keep fighting.”
On his BBC podcast, Seven, Burrow referred to Weir as “my MND hero” before adding: “I know his spirit lives on in all of us who knew him.”
That legacy can be measured in the £11 million raised by Weir’s My Name’5 Doddie Foundation to fund 40 research projects seeking effective treatments and, one day, a cure.
But it only goes some way to explaining the impact this 6’6 Scotland forward, farmer, husband and father had on those whose lives he touched.
“Doddie always considered himself lucky,” said Jill Douglas, lifelong friend, sports broadcaster and chief executive of his foundation. “He never felt sorry for himself, never hid away.
“He said he was lucky because he had lived the life he had and not everybody was so fortunate. For me that his legacy, the sense of positivity and energy he brought to the disease and the way he moved the dial.”
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Douglas talks of the “profound” impact Weir has had on the MND community in giving a voice to people with the disease.
“We hear from people all the time who didn't see Doddie play, didn’t speak to or even meet him, but know about him,” she said. “They heard his voice as a result of his campaigning work. He made MND part of the general conversation.”
Weir won 61 caps for Scotland and was a Premiership title winner with Newcastle, whose thoughts will be with Doddie’s wife Kathy and sons Hamish, Ben and Angus when they take on Exeter today.
“Doddie was so bloody positive towards the end,” continued Douglas. “This never give up approach which he thought extended his life expectancy. Who knows, but he had that real positivity and it was infectious.
“It was difficult for him when he began to lose those fine motor skills, when he was finding it difficult to do up the buttons on his shirt or put on a bow tie. But he still had that twinkle in his eye, that humour which kind of made it easier for everybody around him.
“There was no sense of being, I don't want to use the word ashamed, of wanting to pretend it wasn't happening. He almost embraced it and wanted to demonstrate to people that he could still carry on and do the things he wanted to do.
“He was determined that we carry on so while we miss him every day and think about him in everything we do, we know what he would be saying, which is, ‘get on with it, ask the difficult questions, get on and do it’.”
Douglas added: “There's still a hell of a lot of work to do and that all costs money but I am confident we will find effective treatments and one day a cure. There is momentum and genuine optimism.
“Interest in what we’re doing is accelerating. That, again, is Doddie’s legacy.”