In sickness and in health

Yesterday was my parent’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary, 40 years of togetherness, in sickness and in health, till death do us part….and therein lies the rub, I guess technically it wasn’t their 40th anniversary because my Dad died last November. Do you stop being married when one of you dies, obviously legally you do, but do […]

Hope sings eternal

There have been several claims in the news recently that singing in a choir is as good for your health as yoga! Unfortunately there is zilch evidence to support that claim which was based on a very small scale, observational snap shot of a handful of teenagers in Sweden. So while medical benefits may not […]

999: Show them the love!

Rarely do I sit down and write a blog post in an instant response to something I’ve seen, I’m quite a reflective person, bit of a thinker and I tend to muse on things and have a list of ‘to write when I have time’ blog posts, but occasionally, not often, but every now and […]

The colour yellow

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about a TV series but tonight I was catching up with Don’t call me crazy that was broadcast on BBC Three on Monday evening. Filmed over a year in the McGuinness Unit for Adolescent Mental Health in Manchester. The centre is one of the largest teenage mental health […]

Life after Bobby: my birthday

I’ve always loved reflecting and looking back on the year, I’m the sort of sucker who loves those programmes at new years where the year (or better still, the decade) is shown in highlights. So as a bit of a birthday ritual I’ve been ruminating on the past twelve months and pretty much the one […]

What’s the worst that can happen?

Last weekend I found myself at the top of Narvikfjellet admiring the view when the weather closed in. Having travelled the 656metres up by cable car it was deemed too windy to travel back down and keen to avoid the walk down the side of the mountain in rubbish weather (dressed as tourists with inappropriate […]

Quiet inspiration and the unspoken leaders amongst us #ff

Earlier this week I had a brief conversation on twitter with @crouchendtiger7 and @GilesCharnaud in response to Andrea sharing that she was on the panel for the HSJ Most Inspirational Women in Healthcare Award. Andrea was asking for views (especially from people outside the NHS) about who inspires them and why. I offered two suggestions, […]

My 35 thousandth tweet

Unusually for me I didn’t check twitter the moment I woke up this morning, instead I visited the twitter website as soon as I turned my mac on. It was this that meant I spotted something quite surprising, to me at least – that last night I’d reached the (completely meaningless really) marker of 35k […]

Positive giving

I’m going to start this post with a disclaimer! I don’t know an awful lot about fundraising, or charitable giving so I’m not offering this post as some sort of expert advice. I am however interested in the potential of social media to share messages or build a narrative, and thought I’d share my personal […]