Two years ago, in November 2006, I received the very sad news that an old friend that I had known since school days had passed away. Jack O’Neill, pictured right, was only 44 years old when he was felled by a rare and serious condition called amyloidosis.

Three months before his death, he had called to see me and told me that he had a medical problem. He said that he had been diagnosed with this condition that built up an accumulation of abnormal proteins in some key organs. He also said that he had been told not drink as it was starting to affect his liver and he told me that evening how he’d dearly love to have a beer.

In characteristic fashion, he was upbeat about his prognosis and was preparing for a trip to London to the Royal Free Hospital for treatment to get him into remission, but within a few short weeks of commencing therapy he developed a complication, which brought his life to an abrupt and premature end.

Jack grew up near St. Michael’s College on Ailesbury Road where both he and I went to school, after which he went on to study Commerce at UCD. He moved to London in 1986, joining the logistics desk within the Mitsubishi Corporation and became a member of the Baltic Exchange in 1987.

He became quite an expert in the carriage of grain by sea and in 1989 he moved to the Grain desk at H. Clarkson, where he widened his client base. From there, he went on to join another firm, Howe Robinson in 1995, rising to become one of the world’s leading Panamax brokers.

By the following year he became a director and in 2003 he helped establish a new office for his firm here in Dublin.

He married Jacqueline Twoomey in September 1991 and had a family of three children, Mathew, Jennifer and Eoin. He was well regarded socially and was an active jogger, playing sport when he could.

After his death, his family, friends and his colleagues in London launched a memorial fund in aid of research into the disease. The charity is called JACk– the Joint Amyloidosis Charity– which has already raised €130,000 here in Ireland and something in the order of a quarter of a million in the UK.

These monies have been directed at supporting research at the UK National Amyloidosis Centre in the Royal Free Hospital in London which has also some UK government support.

In addition, JACk has pledged funds to the hematology unit at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin for Irish patients diagnosed with this condition.

On 19th September last, the charity had a sponsored football match in Railway Union sports club on Park Avenue in Sandymount, where Jack used to play football, with teams made up of his old friends.

I spoke with his widow Jacqueline after the game and she told me that they were only informed of the disorder some six months before he died and that he had been quite active until only a while before the end.

Jacqueline said that they had been married fifteen years, that the house was empty without him and that she and the three children were devastated by his passing.

Another old colleague to both Jack and myself, Ray FitzGerald, who also went to St. Michael’s and has been a fundraiser for JACk, told me how well the charity set up in his memory was doing, with a new laboratory in the Royal Free in London named after Jack O’Neill. Ray said “they have actually now cured a laboratory rodent of amyloidosis so there’s great hope for sufferers.”

JACk is a registered charity that aims to fund research into amyloidosis, this rare disorder caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins in key body organs, that can be fatal. For contributions, please send to the Jack O’Neill Memorial Fund, 6 Mount Anville Park, Goatstown, Dublin 14. For further information, please call Liz Yeates at 086 826 7238.