Stephen Clements' former co-host and friend Cate Conway says she is so proud that he is still alive in people's thoughts on what would have been his 50th birthday.
Saturday would have been a landmark occasion for the much-loved former Q Radio and Radio Ulster presenter, who sadly died in January 2020 at the age of 47.
His close friend Cate Conway is asking that people remember him by donating what they can to the NI Hospice, as Stephen's own work had touched lives there as well.
Read more: Belfast Live readers share personal memories of Stephen Clements
"There was a girl called Maddison who used to ring the show every day and she would have been seven when she was ringing," Cate said.
"She's an ambassador for the Children's Hospice because one of her best friends died just a few months before Stephen.
"So she became an ambassador to help fundraise for the Hospice.
"She ran a big gala ball at Titanic last year and asked me to host it and I have to say it was a difficult thing to host, because of the connection between her and I and we'd both just lost close friends."
It was at that event that Cate got talking to NIO Hospice CEO Heather Weir, who mentioned that they were feeling the pinch as fuel bills started to rise.
"She was saying to me about the fuel bills going up and she was saying 'imagine if I have to turn the heating down'," said Cate.
"The Hospice of all places, it just really got me.
"Stephen did stuff for a lot of charities and he used to host a cinema night for a girl who raises money for the Hospice, who lost her sister.
"They haven't run it since Covid and since Stephen died and she rang me and they wanted me to host it.
"From chatting to her about her sister's last few days at the Hospice, and the things that the nurses did for her.
"Even wee things like if they were having a Chinese or anything, just asking her in to sit with them as they were all similar ages to her and that as well.
"Just the things they took care of so the family didn't have to think about it, the way she poke about it was just unreal.
"So it's just all been very much on my mind and for his birthday."
Cate said from there, she talked to the Stephen Clements Foundation (set up in Stephen's memory) and agreed that they would try and raise funds for the NI Hospice as a positive way of remembering his life.
"So with the Stephen Clements Foundation, I'm thinking if people can donate a wee bit to the Hospice in lieu of what they would have given to Stephen for his birthday," she said.
"Stephen did so much for charities and this just felt like the right thing at the minute, especially with it being so cold and it's on everybody's mind.
"I'm painfully aware of how precious those memories are and the thought of someone being in the Hospice and having to think about putting a coat on or anything, it just doesn't bear thinking about."
Cate said she has been heartened in the years since Stephen's death by the everyday stories of how many people's lives he touched and the high regard he was held in.
"I'm just so raging I'm not getting to slag him for being 50, it would have been a really big one," she laughed.
"But we wish we were celebrating with him and it still doesn't seem real that he's not here, even though it's three years in January.
"But it is so helpful to me and everybody that he is so still alive in people's thoughts.
"Over the years, I can't go out in town on a Saturday night without someone talking to me about Stephen and that's so lovely, because even three years people are saying things like they loved listening to him or that he made them laugh every day.
"It's so beautiful that people are still so passionate about him.
"It's incredibly hard but also so lovely and it's really helpful with the grief in that way."
READ NEXT:
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- Stephen Clements dies aged 47: Tributes paid to talented radio presenter
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