Richard Taylor had a catch phrase. If something went wrong in life - something that might send even the most resilient into a tail spin - he would break open his trademark smile and reassure those around him "It's all good".

Richard was blessed. Imbued with unbreakable optimism since birth, he was cool-headed, charismatic, humble, thoughtful, fun, generous and good looking. As if that was not enough of a win in the genetic lottery, he was a talented sportsman to boot. So talented in fact that the boy from the small seaside town of Barry in south Wales - famous for its pleasure park and TV comedy Gavin and Stacey - went on to become a celebrity in the extreme sports worlds of aggressive inline skating and freestyle skiing.

"If ever he got into a scrape and I'd be thinking 'Oh no', he'd just laugh and say 'It's all good'," his mother Gaynor says. "Like the time he got a key snapped off in the lock of a car he'd hired and he was stuck miles from nowhere. There was no panic. 'It's all good mum, we'll sort something out'. "He'd always been the same. From when he was a small boy, he had this amazingly positive way of thinking. "Honestly, he was always happy and couldn't abide moaners.  A smile - that's how you would think of Richard. He had this shining smile." As Gaynor walked beside her son for the final time just before midnight on Sunday 8 August 2004, as his hospital bed was wheeled into an operating theatre to remove his organs for donation, the reality of what had happened was yet to sink in.

A future as a world-class skier, an unrivalled reputation as a champion skater, his burgeoning career as a stuntman, the force of nature that had been Richard Taylor with the shining smile, shaggy blond hair, and "It's all good" philosophy - all of it was gone. Richard had taken many risks throughout his life. He had positively thrived on a sense of danger - stunt skating, cliff jumping, skiing, abseiling, rock climbing, sky diving - though everyone who knew him is keen to stress, never recklessly.