I began in cardiac MRI around 1990 when it had an almost comically random quality and slowness, except so serious for some patients. It’s improved a bit since. I can’t honestly say that had anything to do with me. A strength of the Royal Brompton Hospital cardiac MRI centre is that it does only cardiac MRI, whereas many centres try a few cardiac scans a week and might not build up enough expertise among the clinical staff needed. The almost piratical leadership of Professor Longmore who established this centre was inspiring. Another strength was essential in the earlier days: we modified the hardware of the old MRI scanners to improve their speed, flexibility and sensitivity for cardiac uses. This led to a dedicated cardiac MRI lab built in an old double-decker coach (avoiding planning permission for a new building). It ended up in some distant branch of the Science Museum.