Letter: Ian Aitken obituary

While working at the Guardian, Ian Aitken had an operation to have an eye removed, but he resumed work with no evidence of impairment. Photograph: The Guardian

I was working on the news desk of the Guardian when Ian Aitken joined the paper in 1964. We soon developed a warm relationship in our nightly discussions of goings-on at Westminster.

One night Ian told me that a growth behind one of his eyes might be cancerous and that the only way to be sure was to have the eye removed. He eventually opted for the operation and quietly vanished from the Westminster rota.

In the event the growth turned out to be benign, but he had lost the eye. He resumed his job with no evidence of impairment, and so continued for another couple of decades.