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2008 - July 5th - Friday

THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE NHS

JH filed a ‘Their Say’ Column, in her Herald dossier, written by James Palmer, who is well known to JH as being the Clinical Director of Plymouth Hospitals Trust, as well as one of JH’s previous ‘Bosses’!

 


2008 - July 7th - Monday

The start of a busy week of being in the Press: JH retrieved her Herald from her doormat at 8.30am and found Diana’s article ‘NHS HELPED ME TO GIVE GIFT OF LIFE’ writ large across one of the inside pages, with a strap-line, (actually written above the title) Jeanette donated a kidney to save her distant cousin.  There was nothing written in the article that JH could possibly have anxieties about; in fact, Diana had done a masterly job of précising all of JH’s verboseness on the phone; there were a few small errors, which JH is sure were actually her own errors – made whilst she was chattering-on to Diana: Diana stated that JH said ‘I feel that I have achieved something wonderful’ whereas JH thinks she said ‘remarkable’ (which is a little bit less self-adulatory)’; Diana stated ‘. . . her relative started to “fail before her eyes”, whereas JH thinks she said ‘fade’.  In the penultimate paragraph, Diana says that JH ‘. . . has been a volunteer at the Royal Women’s Voluntary Service Tea Bar . . .’:  Diana did not know about the WRVS, and so JH explained that only the logo is used as the name of the Organisation:- the logo originally stood for the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service – set up in the War {on looking in her Volunteer Induction Guide, JH notes that the WVS was set up in 1938, only gaining ‘Royal’ status a few years later} to provide succour to the Community such as setting up soup kitchens, offering help to evacuees, etc, etc.  JH had obviously not make it clear to Diana that only the title, WRVS, is now used as the name - and so Diana wrote out the ‘old’ name in full.  But JH’s most heinous mistake was to add a year to Kathy’s age, so 69 was printed, instead of 68: actually, Kathy told JH which year she was born in whilst JH was on the phone to Diana and JH reiterated the date but, subsequently, Kathy was not too dismayed at being a year older - as she will be in November! 
 
JH was phoned up by Sarah Calkin, the Reporter for the Echo, the local paper in Essex.  {Yes, we had noticed that here was yet another ‘Sarah’, and JH anticipated herself being confused!}  Sarah C had a delightful conversation with JH: Sarah had spoken to Kathy this morning, and K had told S that K was still struggling with various problems; JH explained all about how Kathy and JH had come to meet, how JH came to offer Kathy a kidney – and the rest of the story!  Kathy could not quite remember our Family Tree so JH took down Sarah’s email address and JH emailed her document ‘Kathy’s and JH’s mutual GGG Grandfather’.  JH also spoke about her activities with the WRVS –which Sarah knew all about, as the Organisation is very active in her area.  After this exchange of information JH asked a very personal question: how old is Sarah?  Sarah is 23 – so JH recounted the story of Diana, the Reporter from the Herald, not having heard of the WRVS, and she is 30!  Whilst JH was on the phone, Sarah Martin, Derriford Press Officer, left a message on JH’s Messaging Service (used to be Call Minder – and was again in December 2008!) to say that the article had been printed in the Herald that morning: she thought the article was really good – or words to that effect.

JH also received a phone call from Joan Marks, who had asked JH if the latter would be prepared to speak to her sister, Margaret, whose son, Paul, is going to receive a kidney from his long-term partner, Karen, on either the 15th or 16th July.   [JH had met Joan as at the Rock Inn on Wednesday, 2nd July.]  Joan explained to JH that Paul and Karen had told Margaret more about the proposed donation; furthermore, JH understood that Margaret had had an opportunity to speak with someone else about the forthcoming donation; JH assumes that this would be Sara Stacey at Derriford Hospital.  Jean, whom JH found rather difficult to hear on the phone – as Joan has a bit of a ‘quiver’ in her voice {or perhaps it was the line} – said that she thanked JH very much, but that her ‘counselling services’ were no longer required.  When JH had spoken to Joan previously, she (JH) had thought that it would be a much better arrangement for Margaret to speak to one of the Transplant Team; furthermore, JH had anticipated that further dialogue would take place between Margaret, Paul, Karen - and Sara S. 

JH was taken aback at Joan’s misunderstanding about kidney failure, insomuch that Jean asked JH ‘If you can survive with only one kidney, why cannot someone with kidney failure survive on a remaining kidney, if one kidney fails’.  JH observes that communications, in any sphere of life, is rather like the party game where a whispered message is passed from one person to another, and the final recipient of the message ‘comes out with’ some amusing distortion of the original message.  And Jean would, of course, not be the first relative in line to have information imparted to her about her nephew’s kidney failure, but might have had it repeated second-hand, at least; furthermore, Jean might have known someone who had had one kidney removed out of surgical necessity such as trauma, or malignant disease, or some such, and not be sufficiently knowledgeable to distinguish the difference between a surgically-remediable problem, and kidney failure due to an intrinsic physiological problem which affects both kidneys.  JH hopes that, in her astonishment at the question, that she did not answer Jean in a manner to make the latter feel stupid in asking it. 

JH phoned Kathy:  JH told Kathy that ‘our’ article had been published in this morning’s Herald, and JH told K that she would send the page off the Herald’s website to Kathy; Kathy confirmed with JH that the latter had been phoned by Sarah C from Kathy's local Echo; JH remarked that Sarah was very young, and Kathy said that Sarah was still only ‘Learning on the Job’ about being a Reporter.  Upon questioning, Kathy came up with the name of the bug, which the clinicians think she might have picked up again:- CMV.  JH now understood: CMV – cytomegalovirus – is a nasty large virus which can cause very severe illness leading to organ failure (JH also recollects that CMV can be transmitted to the foetus across the placenta, if a pregnant woman is infected with CMV).  Kathy had been very ill whilst she was on dialysis (but before JH had offered her a kidney) and so JH had to be reminded by K of this episode: whilst typing this, JH has to admit to herself that Kathy might not live to be 100, which is hers, and Ralph’s ambition.
 
JH sent the article in the Herald electronically to Kathy and Ralph, and to the Senior Elfleins.  JH then had another look at the Herald’s website, and noted that – when she typed in ‘Hipsey’ to search the site – she received two hits: the second one being entitled ‘undefined headline’; when JH opened this article, she was entertained to find an article from a linked website www.thisistotalessex.co.uk which described a school reunion - which was attended by Steve and Cathy Hipsey from Tavistock - of pupils who left Plume School in 1976: what youngsters they are!  JH sent an email to Kathy to suggest that the latter open the Herald’s website and follow the links to another Hipsey. 

JH subsequently ordered two copies of the photograph published in the Herald: these were delivered a day or two later in a very wet envelope by a very wet postlady but, fortunately the contents were not wet!  JH sent one copy to Kathy in the same envelope, which she had to repair extensively with sticky tape; Kathy subsequently reported that she had received her copy, without dog-ears.

 
 		Link to "James Palmer - Their Say..."
Plymouth Herald - 5th July 2008

 
 		Link to "NHS Helped Me To Give The Gift Of Life"
Plymouth Herald - 7th July 2008


 
 
 
 
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