16th November

Douglas passed away peacefully in his sleep at 00:10 GMT, close friends and members of his family shared his last few hours.

He fought his final illness with a quiet dignity and bravery - and of course humour - that was an inspiration to all who were privileged to help and support him, from however far away. His determination to ensure that his work is not forgotten and the pleasure that his playing gave to so many people will be his enduring legacy.

His family wish to thank all of those involved in Douglas's medical care, in the widest sense, especially the staff of Willen Hospice, where he spent his last few days.

12th November

Helping Douglas to sleep in a more upright position has improved things but more medication will probably be needed to try to control the developing effect of the tumour.

8th November

The medical team are still trying to optimise the effects of the treatment against the progress of the illness and are taking Douglas into Willen Hospice for a couple of days' observation and assessment. They will be able to find the right level of support that we need at home now too.

He has been overwhelmed by your response to the mp3 file. Thanks for all of your emails.

5th November

The success of the Bristol trip and all of your messages continue to give Douglas a positive and untroubled outlook and the strength he needs to keep up the fight against his illness which seems to get harder every day.

Douglas is still determined to give you the chance to listen to him play even if you managed to successfully avoid the 'Bach in the Bar' in Bristol - there is a connection, the audio here was recorded with the help of an NHL Beanie hat - technical specifications on request!

3 Traditional tunes, mp3, recorded 20.11.04 © Douglas and Barbara Tate

(many thanks to Winslow Yerxa for the new version with noise reduction)

31st October 2005

Well - we made it. Douglas had a wonderful, but completely exhausting time in Bristol - we have to thank so many people, everyone who contributed in so many ways to making it special, too many of you to mention - but you know who you are! More details and hopefully some photos when we have recovered ...

27th October 2005

Douglas has rested and recovered from another grand-mal seizure yesterday and has been given the go ahead to go to Bristol - so long as it's a quiet, low-key visit. If you're going, we'll see you there - in Jurys if not the Folk House ...

28th October 2005

Happy Birthday Douglas!

22nd October 2005

The doctors are considering whether there is any alternative medication that might have fewer side-effects, whilst still containing the progress of the disease. In the meantime we have installed a stairlift at home for safety's sake. Needless to say, it doesn't go quite fast enough for Douglas and has been declared to be in need of fine tuning ...

If his medical team say that it is OK, Douglas would dearly love to pay a quiet, private visit to the NHL Festival in Bristol during next weekend. Our sincere thanks go to the NHL committee for working hard to make this a possibility.

19th September 2005

Douglas's treatments to date have included:

steroids to control brain swelling, a craniotomy to reduce the tumour and provide biopsy samples, radiotherapy and a trial treatment to kill the tumour cells that is still being researched. These treatments mean that Douglas's condition is currently stable.

Some of the treatments have side-effects that affect balance and so we sometimes use a wheelchair in public spaces for safety.

The trial treatment uses a drug called clomipramine to kill the tumour cells. You can read more about it here (you will need to paste the address into your browser window, there are no links to or from this page):

www.iconmag.co.uk/page.php?n=271

www.port.ac.uk/research/ibbs/neuro-oncology/research/clomipraminetrial/