MOST of us secretly dream that when we pass away we will have left a special mark on the world.

The sad reality is that aside from within our own close circle of family and friends, it IS only a dream.

Through a strange twist of fate my friend Ali Booker was a lady who never in a million years would have wished for this, but judging on the amount of phone calls, emails and comments we have received at Jack FM, ‘The Booker’ as we call her, touched thousands.

For those of you who were not lucky enough to meet her, here are a few words I know her close friends would use to describe her.

Inspirational (she would hate that one).

Brave (she would hate that even more).

Stubborn (she would like that).

And a great actress.

You see Ali had the ability to make you believe she did not have terminal cancer, and even though you could see the effect it was having on her body, she was able to mask it with her amazing attitude of living life to fullest.

She was able to make anyone laugh, even in the darkest of times.

And with the darkest of humour too. I remember walking into the studio to hear her having a contest with someone else with a serious illness over who was worse off.

Ali let him win, because, as she said: ‘I get to go sooner, rather than a long painful death, so you win’.

She had that magical thing everyone in the media dreams of… ‘perfect comic timing’, and combined with a habit of just saying whatever popped into her head, she was a joy to listen to.

One of our favourite memories is the day she was reading a news story about changes to Oxford’s one-way system.

Rather than just asking for feedback, she said: “Normally we would have gone out in the street and asked what you thought, but as it’s peeing down with rain, could you call us instead?”

Ali, it has been a pleasure to work with you and a privilege to be able to call you a friend.