DURING the course of a career spanning several decades in journalism, business and communications, I have met many well-known and ‘successful’ people.

These have included people from the worlds of politics, business and commerce, the public sector as well as sport and entertainment.

In some cases, it has been a privilege, but not always because people who are hugely successful in a particular field can be disappointing as human being perhaps, partly, because they can become consumed by their own celebrity and expertise.

It is often the ‘little people’ who stay in the mind and one such man is Jack Andow.

I do not claim to have known Jack well and probably met him no more than a dozen times although in the course of my work I spoke to him quite a bit.

Jack demonstrated that you do not have to be six foot six and weigh 120kg to be a giant but, although physically small, he was in so many ways a ‘big man'.

He did not always make people feel good about themselves. A friend and colleague of mine described him as ‘sickeningly cheerful’ and he would often leave me feeling very aware of my inadequacies.

Jack would almost certainly have disputed it but, in this great game of chance that is life, he was not dealt a great hand.

A former Navy man born in Liverpool, he lost his wife and, at roughly the same time, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a condition that progressively got worse, as it does, and confined him to a wheelchair.

Other health problems followed, including cancer that necessitated the removal of his nose. He suffered chronic and debilitating ill health for the past 25 years.

But Jack was determined live life to the full and he did so in full measure.

He showed a great ability with needle and thread which is hardly a skill one might expect from a man who served his early years in the engine room of big ships.

This skill resulted in many wonderful tapestries that he would give to charities for them to sell to raise funds. In this way he contributed some £40,000 to good causes. This included the Royal British Legion that he said had helped him a lot.

Jack was a founder of the Multiple Sclerosis Group in Ludlow and a welfare officer for the Royal Naval Association that involved visiting people in hospital and in their homes. He was an active supporter of the Cancer Support Group in Ludlow and was an assessor for the Disability Group.

He was regularly seen out and about in Ludlow but his travels took him much further despite his illness and disabilities. Jack would proudly talk about having been on more than 20 cruises. In fact he did some disability access assessment work for cruise companies.

Jack was also a great patriot in a simple and straightforward way. He loved the Queen and was as proud as punch when he was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2015, a year in which he also was a recipient of a Civic Award from Ludlow Town Council.

In the final months of his life, he sent one of his tapestries to the Queen to mark her 90th birthday and was so pleased to get a reply from one of her ladies in waiting.

Jack was due to join a delegation from the Disability Group on Saturday, October 8, on a mission to draw attention to access issues in the town but, unusually for him, he was missing.

Not many realised at the time but he was in intensive care in Shrewsbury Hospital having become ill and developed pneumonia a few weeks after having a flu jab although this may not be connected to his untimely death.

He was in his middle 70s so not a great age by modern standards and had faced huge challenges in the last 25 years of his life but had triumphed over them.

Inspirational is a much over-used word but in its own way it is not misspent when referring to Jack Andow.