Alexander Hughes 1997-2021

Alex Hughes was born in London and died in his rooms at Southampton University from double bronchial pneumonia. He was working hard on a subject he was passionate about, believing he could get a First Class degree in bio-medical sciences.

Alex was a beautiful little boy who right from the get-go grabbed life with both hands. Bike down that hill as fast as you can? Sure. Fancy a giant python round your neck? Bring it on. Watching him run down the stairs two steps at a time was terrifying to his parents. He was six years old when his little sister arrived and he loved her fiercely and infected her with his full throttle approach to life. As he got older this fearlessness and also the kindness in him grew in intensity. He became a brilliant extreme freeride and freestyle skier. He was courageous beyond belief, a risk taker.

He didn’t conform. The fearlessness meant he didn’t care what people thought or expected of him and he rejected those adults (teachers, mostly) who tried to impose conformity on him. If everybody was doing something, it was probably wrong. All courses of action would be subjected to his own deep moral code – as long as it didn’t hurt anyone (other than himself) then he would be OK with it. He broke two legs, a knee, an ankle, three collarbones and four metatarsals. I once said to him that he should realise that his appreciation and calibration of risk was awry and we were worried he would (really) hurt himself one day. He responded, “if I changed that, it wouldn’t be me”.

His kindness and sensitivity grew with his tolerance of risk. The kind words of his many friends paint a picture of someone full of love for his friends, completely alive to the needs of others and always there with a hug, a laugh and a joke if they were down. He had a huge musical talent and great skills learnt, not in the conventional way, of course, but pretty much entirely self-taught. He was highly proficient on guitar, piano and bass. His musical tastes were, of course, unconventional – he hated “popular” music and, given the entire panoply of artists over the decades to choose from, his first loves were the rock classics – Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Doors.

These charities were chosen by his friends and are enthusiastically endorsed by his parents. They reflect his love of music and his love of the mountains and skiing.

Unconventional, non-conformist, original, kind to those around him, full of love and loved by many. He was suspicious of the ordinary and of the adults who would try to paint him into an ordinary corner. He was a risk-taker who diced with death. One day, death was rolling sixes and what we always feared might happen, but hoped never would, did happen. And the world was deprived of an extraordinary human whose love, energy, originality and passion for the power of science to improve life just might have combined to change the world for the better.

Rest in peace, Buzz. Your family, your many friends and the world will miss you, more than you, or the world, will ever know.

Michael Hughes