Wonder drug gave Bill a second lease of life and he grabbed it

I assume that he was recovering after being given streptomycin, which was the new wonder drug. It started to close up the hole in his lung. He had been in a very bad way and going downhill until he was given this new drug.

We were taken into this prefabricated ward and I remember seeing this figure at the far end of the ward, sitting up in his bed and waving to us as we approached. I remember that as clear as a bell.

Way back in childhood when we were young boys, we were always in each other's houses in Hawick. We used to have these great cricket matches with a cricket bat and a tennis ball dunked in a bucket of water to take some of the bounce out of it and Bill would always umpire them. He was always a useful person to have around when a window got broken, firstly to make the apologies and secondly to stump up for the broken glass.

He taught all of us how to play rugby. There was a piece of ground just down the road from where we stayed called Oliver Park and we nicknamed it "the pitch". It was a Mecca for all the boys from Hawick, I think I was no more than six or seven at the time, I still have a picture of it, and he was there running around.

We were all there in our "civvies", short breeches and sleeveless jerseys and short-sleeved shirts; it must have been a summer's day, there were about a dozen of us and I can almost hear Bill bawling at us with that wonderful voice of his.

We used to sit at what we called the "wireless" when Bill was commentating in the early days. You must remember that being on the BBC was a huge thing for a lad from Hawick . In those days the only Scots on the radio were well-educated and spoke the Queen's English so when Bill first started it was absolutely massive. He must have been one of the first regional accents that the BBC ever used and, in that respect, he certainly started a trend.

The great thing about Bill even in the early days of broadcasting is that his voice was clear and his diction was very good; you could hear every word and that is obviously important, especially when it was being transmitted across the world with some pretty basic equipment.

I think that much of what Bill achieved in the game came as a result of his illness that prevented him playing rugby. Once the shutters were drawn on his playing career he still loved the game and he had to find a way to contribute somehow. Hence the journalist, hence the teaching at school and hence the broadcasting. By gum, it gave him a second lease of life with the wonder drug and he grabbed it with both hands and what a life it was, what a rich, rich life.

Bill was well loved because he had a gentleness of character that came through in his commentary but it wasn't always the case. When he played for Hawick in his younger days Bill ripped the jersey clean off the back of two Heriot's players with sheer vim and aggression. My grandfather McLaren, Bill's dad, told me the story himself. He was sitting in the Mansfield stand beside two old men from the town, surrounded by his usual cloud of cigarette smoke. One of the men turned to his pal and stated in a loud voice: "Yon McLaren is a dirty bugger". Bill's father just smiled, nodded his head and agreed, "Aye, you're right enough, so he is".

Bill was a good all-round sportsman, he not only played rugby for Hawick but he played golf for Hawick and I think that he even swam for the town. Apart from sport I think that Bill's only real interest was Bette and his girls. I never felt that he was a greatly complicated man. He just loved his wife and he loved his daughters and he loved his broadcasting.

I used to sit with Bill in the early days, I learnt my trade listening to him week by week. The original commentary position at Murrayfield was in the scoreboard that stood above the east terraces. Then they moved it to a position high in the old West Stand. We used to climb up using a ladder and we had to take a pail with us because there was no running water or toilet.

He used to commentate from up there and I used to sit beside him and take notes so he could write his newspaper article for the following week. I suppose that is where I must have got my interest in broadcasting although I wasn't aware of it at the time. I never looked for a career in broadcasting, I'd always wanted to be a teacher and that was what I was focused on, but when I started out in a radio station in Selkirk, Bill was very helpful.

I used to go around the games on a Saturday and I'd do a dummy radio commentary, just to get used to it. That was when Bill gave me a lot of advice, especially, being the good teacher that he was, on the value of doing my homework.

That was the name of the game, preparation, but it wasn't the be-all and end-all. He would prepare as much as he could but at the end of the day so much of what you say is spontaneous and Bill was wonderful with the things that he came out with. Some of it was rehearsed of course but I suspect that most came straight from the heart.

• Bill Johnstone was Bill McLaren's nephew and has been the rugby commentator for BBC Radio Scotland for 25 years.