A small parcel arrived from America on Christmas Eve from a very special person.
Four years ago hubby donated his bone marrow to an unknown person who would otherwise have died without it.
He joined the register to donate bone marrow with Anthony Nolan many years ago when he saw an advertisement on tv to try and find a donor for Anthony Nolan himself. Our own son was, at that time, of a similar age to Anthony and it brings it home to you that you are lucky that your own children are healthy when you hear of such an appeal.
The routine of donating bone marrow was not difficult, a little like giving blood, only for a longer time, and he was looked after well. He had been on the register for many many years when he was called up to donate his bone marrow. You start to think "will I ever be a match for anyone" and then the call comes.
We did not have much idea to whom his bone marrow had gone, we had christmas cards and letters from the recipient, but all we knew was that they were a woman with a teenage son and a daughter in her early twenties. We had no idea which country they were from or what they looked like. Until about a year ago.
Two years after a donation, the recipient has the right to ask to contact their donor. You cannot have contact the other way around, it has to come from the recipient of the bone marrow, so when a letter arrived on the doorstep to say that the person whose life he saved wanted contact we had to make the decision as to whether or not to allow it to take place. After speaking to our children, and one another, we decided to allow contact and sent in the form of agreement.
One memorable day we received an email from Michelle in America, the lady whose life Graham had saved. She had been through a very bad time, she was so ill at one point that the family were gathered around her hospital bed to say goodbye. She was in a coma for a long time, and had to learn how to walk again. Without Grahams donation she told us, she would definately have died. Her husband would have been without his wife. Her children would have been without a mother. She told us how grateful she is to be alive, how wonderful it is to be able to say thankyou for the gift of life.
We are now friends on Facebook, we email each other and we have spoken on the phone. We hope to meet next year when they travel to visit friends in Ireland and we are hoping to go and meet Michelle and her husband. Without my husband Michelle would not be alive, and without my husband I would not be alive. You see I have also had cancer, Michelle had cancer of the blood, I had breast cancer. I had thrown away the letter to go for a routine mammogram but my husband, Graham, took the letter out of the bin and made me go and have that routine mammogram. I thought nothing was wrong, but I was wrong. It turned out I had breast cancer. If he had not rescued the letter, and made me attend the test, I may not be around to tell you this tale!
He says he donated his bone marrow to Michelle to "give something back" for my life being saved. He would have donated his bone marrow anyway, because that is the sort of person he is.
He is very proud to have saved a life, I am very proud of him. It is a wonderful thing to say you have saved the life of another person, a stranger whose paths otherwise would never have crossed your own. So if you can, save a life today. Join the bone marrow register. Thankyou.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Friday, 14 December 2012
Christmas way back when!
I was born in 1955 and grew up with my parents and two sisters, both of whom are older than me. One is 7 years older, the other 6 years older.
As it was Dads birthday on the 12th December he refused to start Christmas until after his birthday had passed and even today I keep up the same tradition, our christmas tree does not go up until the weekend after my Dads birthday has gone by.
Dad would announce that he was going out to look for holly and ask for volunteers to go and help. At the end of our street was a small wooded area where you could often find a little bit of holly growing through the trees so we would go armed with scissors and a bit of newspaper to wrap it. He would place it on the mantlepiece and on the tops of pictures, anywhere it would sit really. I remember having a real tree as well as artificial trees, not at the same time mind you, I think we probably had real trees when I was really small, progressing on to an artificial tree as the shops started to sell them. I love the smell of a real pine Christmas tree, there is nothing which says Christmas better! It was never quite the same somehow when we started to have an artificial tree. The box of glass baubles would be brought out, very delicate these were and we would have to be extremely careful not to drop them or they would shatter and sharp thin shards would be everywhere. Dad had to test the tree lights before he put them on to the tree and invariably each time they would not come on, meaning he then had to test each tiny bulb in turn to see which one was not working. I used to sit, with bated breath, just in case they did not work at all, I hardly dared to breath, just in case they did not start to twinkle. When the tree was dressed, we would all have a hand in putting the baubles around the branches, once the lights were on, then the tinsel before the big switch on when Dad would turn the main light out in the room so we could view the tree with its lights twinkling in all its glory. Some years we would have the proper tree chocolates to hang on our tree, wrapped in coloured silver paper, often in the shape of santa, bells, maybe a star. Other years we would be set to work with wrapping paper, small bars of chocolate, selotape and cotton and we would be occupied wrapping the sweets up before hanging them on the tree.
Mom would get the paper chains out, not that they were chains at the beginning, they were merely strips of coloured paper with a gummed strip at one end which we would turn into a circle and stick together, before putting the next piece of paper through and making another circle, forming the chain. Once they were long enough they were handed to Dad who would fix them somehow onto the ceiling at the corner of the room, they would then be draped, fixed in the centre by the light fitting and then fixed to the opposite corner. The whole thing would then be done again in the other corners until the chains hung in a cross over the ceiling. Out would come balloons, which all helped to blow up, though Mom would have to tie them, I was scared they would burst in my hands and I hated nothing more than when a balloon burst, frightening the life out of me with the `bang`. The balloons would then be hung up around the room along with various other christmas decorations, large bells made of paper unfolded carefully and fixed with a little metal clip. I can also remember Dad fixing up crepe paper streamers which he would twist as he fed them out from the corner of the ceiling before he taped them to the centre and then on to the opposite corner. Whether the crepe paper streamers came first, or the paper chains I am not sure. I am pretty certain though that one superseded the other!
One year Christmas designs were sprayed on to the windows of the lounge using a cardboard template and a can of`snow spray`. We also had `snow` sprayed into the corners of the windows making it look like a winter scene from outside. I don`t think that happened again very often, as it proved very difficult to remove after the festivities!!
Extended family would arrive for the Christmas get togethers, Grandads, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins. One memorable year I was in bed with German measles, I would be about 3 at the time, I could hear everybody having a good time downstairs but I did not want to go down as I thought they would all laugh at my spots. I doubt I felt very well either come to that! Mom tried to persuade me but I was having none of it, until my cousin arrived in my room and asked was I coming down to play. I remember playing with my new skittles in the hallway and asking if I could have a drink of the funny water with the bubbles, so I suppose I must have gone to join in after all. That was my first taste of lemonade, I did not like it much! The bubbles went up my nose and I much preferred milk!
We did not have loads in the way of presents, not like today with computer games, televisions and all kinds of expensive electrical equipment available. For our main present we would get something like a board game, I was thrilled the year I got "Mouse Trap" which we would play with the family after dinner in the afternoon while we munched sweets and nuts. We would also get a book, usually an annual, The Beano, Dandy or Bunty perhaps, and always a selection box which often had a game on the back which you cut out after you finished the contents.
Dad always had to have certain sweets for Christmas, there would be Roses chocolates or Quality Street, liquorice allsorts, fruit jellies in a box, and he liked to have a small round box with jelly slices of oranges and lemons which it seemed only he liked! Mom liked sugared almonds and we would often have a box of turkish delight, dusted with powder which I think must have been icing sugar. My Aunty liked those! I quite liked them too, though they stuck to your teeth!
Christmas was a family time when I was a child, as it should be, and we love nothing more than having the whole family around us today.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas time, and all the very best for the New Year. xxx
As it was Dads birthday on the 12th December he refused to start Christmas until after his birthday had passed and even today I keep up the same tradition, our christmas tree does not go up until the weekend after my Dads birthday has gone by.
Dad would announce that he was going out to look for holly and ask for volunteers to go and help. At the end of our street was a small wooded area where you could often find a little bit of holly growing through the trees so we would go armed with scissors and a bit of newspaper to wrap it. He would place it on the mantlepiece and on the tops of pictures, anywhere it would sit really. I remember having a real tree as well as artificial trees, not at the same time mind you, I think we probably had real trees when I was really small, progressing on to an artificial tree as the shops started to sell them. I love the smell of a real pine Christmas tree, there is nothing which says Christmas better! It was never quite the same somehow when we started to have an artificial tree. The box of glass baubles would be brought out, very delicate these were and we would have to be extremely careful not to drop them or they would shatter and sharp thin shards would be everywhere. Dad had to test the tree lights before he put them on to the tree and invariably each time they would not come on, meaning he then had to test each tiny bulb in turn to see which one was not working. I used to sit, with bated breath, just in case they did not work at all, I hardly dared to breath, just in case they did not start to twinkle. When the tree was dressed, we would all have a hand in putting the baubles around the branches, once the lights were on, then the tinsel before the big switch on when Dad would turn the main light out in the room so we could view the tree with its lights twinkling in all its glory. Some years we would have the proper tree chocolates to hang on our tree, wrapped in coloured silver paper, often in the shape of santa, bells, maybe a star. Other years we would be set to work with wrapping paper, small bars of chocolate, selotape and cotton and we would be occupied wrapping the sweets up before hanging them on the tree.
Mom would get the paper chains out, not that they were chains at the beginning, they were merely strips of coloured paper with a gummed strip at one end which we would turn into a circle and stick together, before putting the next piece of paper through and making another circle, forming the chain. Once they were long enough they were handed to Dad who would fix them somehow onto the ceiling at the corner of the room, they would then be draped, fixed in the centre by the light fitting and then fixed to the opposite corner. The whole thing would then be done again in the other corners until the chains hung in a cross over the ceiling. Out would come balloons, which all helped to blow up, though Mom would have to tie them, I was scared they would burst in my hands and I hated nothing more than when a balloon burst, frightening the life out of me with the `bang`. The balloons would then be hung up around the room along with various other christmas decorations, large bells made of paper unfolded carefully and fixed with a little metal clip. I can also remember Dad fixing up crepe paper streamers which he would twist as he fed them out from the corner of the ceiling before he taped them to the centre and then on to the opposite corner. Whether the crepe paper streamers came first, or the paper chains I am not sure. I am pretty certain though that one superseded the other!
One year Christmas designs were sprayed on to the windows of the lounge using a cardboard template and a can of`snow spray`. We also had `snow` sprayed into the corners of the windows making it look like a winter scene from outside. I don`t think that happened again very often, as it proved very difficult to remove after the festivities!!
Extended family would arrive for the Christmas get togethers, Grandads, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins. One memorable year I was in bed with German measles, I would be about 3 at the time, I could hear everybody having a good time downstairs but I did not want to go down as I thought they would all laugh at my spots. I doubt I felt very well either come to that! Mom tried to persuade me but I was having none of it, until my cousin arrived in my room and asked was I coming down to play. I remember playing with my new skittles in the hallway and asking if I could have a drink of the funny water with the bubbles, so I suppose I must have gone to join in after all. That was my first taste of lemonade, I did not like it much! The bubbles went up my nose and I much preferred milk!
We did not have loads in the way of presents, not like today with computer games, televisions and all kinds of expensive electrical equipment available. For our main present we would get something like a board game, I was thrilled the year I got "Mouse Trap" which we would play with the family after dinner in the afternoon while we munched sweets and nuts. We would also get a book, usually an annual, The Beano, Dandy or Bunty perhaps, and always a selection box which often had a game on the back which you cut out after you finished the contents.
Dad always had to have certain sweets for Christmas, there would be Roses chocolates or Quality Street, liquorice allsorts, fruit jellies in a box, and he liked to have a small round box with jelly slices of oranges and lemons which it seemed only he liked! Mom liked sugared almonds and we would often have a box of turkish delight, dusted with powder which I think must have been icing sugar. My Aunty liked those! I quite liked them too, though they stuck to your teeth!
Christmas was a family time when I was a child, as it should be, and we love nothing more than having the whole family around us today.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas time, and all the very best for the New Year. xxx
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
POTATO POTATO
You would think, by now, I would know how to cook potatoes! I thought I would cheat today and while the mince, carrots and onions were cooking in one pot, ready for me to make cottage pie for tea, I put the pan of potatoes on the same oven shelf to cook rather than on the hob to save fuel! When I got the meat out to give it a stir I checked the potatoes and they were soft, until I drained them off and tried to mash the stupid things when I discovered that some of the ones at the bottom of the pan are still, well shall we say a little crispy! I have mashed them up a bit, so at the moment they are crushed potatoes, and have put them back into the oven on a slower heat in the hope that they might soften up a bit. After all who wants hard bits in their mash? I could not put them back into boiling water as I had already added some olive oil spread so I have now sprinkled a bit of olive oil over them too and am hoping for the best! I have cooked them this way before and doing them in the oven seems to give them a nicer flavour, but it is always a good idea to make sure they are cooked properly before you try to mash them up ready for topping the meat. Oh well, hopefully they will soften and I shall be able to complete my meal soon.
I have been very good today, I had a brunch rather than a breakfast and lunch, an omlete sandwich. Yes sounds rather strange but I like it. I wanted something tasty, warm and filling. As I am on a diet, surely one meal rather than two is preferable?!!?
I have also sorted out my filing cabinet, well sort of, I have filed away the post which has been sat on the top for several months, quite a pile by this time, and half of which has been torn in half and thrown in the bin. Which begs the question, why was it there in the first place?! I have told myself that this time (though I said this last time) I shall file post away (bills, bank statements etc.) as and when it comes. Thats what I have told myself, though I bet the top of my filing cabinet will be in the same state again in a few weeks time and my resolution will have gone out of the window. It would be much easier, but for some reason I hate filing and sorting out paperwork! I am actually a secretary by trade so I should be ok with doing this sort of thing, but it is a hated job for me!
Hubby has just arrived so I am going to see how my potato disaster has come out. Bye for now!
I have been very good today, I had a brunch rather than a breakfast and lunch, an omlete sandwich. Yes sounds rather strange but I like it. I wanted something tasty, warm and filling. As I am on a diet, surely one meal rather than two is preferable?!!?
I have also sorted out my filing cabinet, well sort of, I have filed away the post which has been sat on the top for several months, quite a pile by this time, and half of which has been torn in half and thrown in the bin. Which begs the question, why was it there in the first place?! I have told myself that this time (though I said this last time) I shall file post away (bills, bank statements etc.) as and when it comes. Thats what I have told myself, though I bet the top of my filing cabinet will be in the same state again in a few weeks time and my resolution will have gone out of the window. It would be much easier, but for some reason I hate filing and sorting out paperwork! I am actually a secretary by trade so I should be ok with doing this sort of thing, but it is a hated job for me!
Hubby has just arrived so I am going to see how my potato disaster has come out. Bye for now!
Monday, 10 December 2012
Life long friends
I`m very lucky. Today I am going out for a pre Christmas lunch with my friend Elaine, we have been friends for 46 years since we met at school at the age of 11 years old. We have both been through a lot, and we have kept in touch for all of these years, friends for life. We both started Grammar School on the same day and were put into Mr Bryce`s class together. He had very strange eyes, they did not always look where he wanted them to, so that he could appear to be looking at one person when really he was actually looking at the person sitting next to them or behind them! Kids in our class used to wonder why he was telling them off before they realised he was actually shouting at the girl sitting to your right! Anyway she will be here soon so I had best go and get ready for my lunch date.
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