Martin Bland, Emeritus Professor of Health Statistics from the University of York, shares stories from his statistical journey and friendship with the celebrated medical statistician Doug Altman, who sadly passed away in 2018. Doug Altman is considered by many to have contributed more than any other statistician to improving the evidence for clinical practice. A world-leading expert on health research methodology and reporting, Doug was director for the Centre for Statistics in Medicine and professor of statistics in medicine at the University of Oxford, posts he held for more than 20 years: https://www.statslife.org.uk/news/3817-douglas-altman-1948-2018