Some of you will have known her as Sue the pipes through her links with me and Bassic, others will have known her through her long association with Whitby Folk Festival and her partnership with Martin Bull.

She died yesterday, aged 49, around lunch time after fighting liver cancer .

I knew her for a little under 20 years, she was once my lover always my friend, my teacher, my inspiration (we leaned to play the pipes together and she inspired me to take up the scottish smallpipes and to move on to the Border pipes). We won a piping competition together last year and now she is gone.

I will miss her and the world is a poorer place.