Neil Grainger, who sadly passed away on Saturday, March 15, once said that he had crammed many lives into his 44 years. After being diagnosed in 2012 with a malignant melanoma and shortly afterward finding out he was also HIV-positive, he continued to fight for himself but also — out of consideration and a sense of justice — for others. This was a recurring theme in his short life.
Grainger, born in Smethwick in England's West Midlands, was a lifelong West Bromwich Albion fan and continued to support them even when living abroad. He attended Bristnall Hall High School in the mid-1980s and went on to chalk up a diverse list of jobs in his 20s, including time as a greengrocer in the Lancashire town of Chorley, a barman in Spain and as a personal assistant in London.
His close friend Rob Orton, who first met Grainger in his flamboyantly named grocery, Tutti Frutti, said he was always fun-loving and looking for a new adventure. One day, out of the blue, Grainger told Orton he had decided to close his shop and study Japanese and Chinese. Grainger turned out to be a natural linguist and, having spent a life-changing year studying abroad at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, he graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston in 2003.