My brother Richard Phillips, known as Dick, has died at the age of 56. Despite the fact that illness stamped much of his life, he lived with determination, wit and cheer, travelling widely and pursuing what pleasures he could.
Born in London, Dick was the son of Nigel, a lecturer at Soas, and Hazel (nee Chesterman), a nursery school teacher. He attended University College school, Hampstead, and later won a scholarship to Cambridge to study classics.
Dick was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s and multiple sclerosis (MS) in his 30s. The record of his life was never going to feature worldly success. Yet he worked while he could – as a tennis coach, dispatch rider and carpenter. And he built numerous pieces of furniture for family members, including a wonderful treehouse.
MS brought a growing catalogue of problems: urinary tract infections, impaired kidney function, poor vision, wasted legs that he could no longer feel, and a growing inability to swallow or, in the end, to talk. The strong sedatives he took for schizophrenia blunted his thinking.
Yet he loved – and lived for – music (especially funk and R&B), food (especially Chinese crispy duck), sharp clothes and haircuts, and tobacco (Cutters Choice). He enjoyed shooting the breeze with relatives, carers and anyone else who would hear him out.
And before MS shrank his world, he roamed widely, visiting Egypt, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, India and the US, which he drove right across. Later, he travelled solo to Venice and Amsterdam, turning a new motorised wheelchair into a scuffed near-wreck in the space of a few weeks. Nearer home, he enjoyed many camping trips in the UK.
To the very end, he valued his life. In his last months, when even eating and smoking were impossible, two things still earned the description “perfect”: having his hair washed, and chewing on small pieces of ripe mango. Anguish, anxiety and impatience all dissolved in the satisfaction of bringing pleasures like these to someone who could not pursue them independently.
Dick is survived by his father and his sisters, Penny and me.
