Sasha’s inquest: thoughts from her mum

In April and May2019 I live-tweeted the inquest into the death of Sasha Forster. I gathered feedback after her inquest had concluded and when discussing the raw data with Angela, Sasha’s mum, we were struck by the concern for Sasha’s family and the fact that people weren’t aware that I had their explicit permission. I […]

A round table and a sniff test

During my very limited time in New Zealand (10 days, not nearly enough) I spoke to a number of people about investigating the deaths of learning disabled people and improving their access to healthcare. I asked all of them the same question ‘who should I be speaking with to find out about academic research in […]

A letter to my niece on her fifth birthday

Dear Libbie, It’s now a few weeks since you turned five and having spent the day together I decided that I’d better revisit the letter on your birthday tradition! So what more can I offer after this from your third birthday and this from your fourth! The big change in the last year is that […]

Five things I wish I knew when I offered to give a eulogy

Waking today I remembered that twelve months ago, the 29th November, was an equally drab and grey November morning. Not too much different to any other autumn morning when the sun stays at half light as though its too apathetic to break through the clouds. It suited me, felt like an honest reflection of my […]

Life after Bobby: Happy Birthday Dad

I’ve not blogged too regularly of late, I blame Social Care Curry Club, which has been a brilliant distraction and useful channel of so much energy. That said I felt like today warranted a post, as today is Dad’s 66th birthday. Well it would have been his 66th birthday but he died last year. Do […]

Life after Bobby: the first 100 days

It’s 101 days since Dad died today, I’d been thinking about this (non)-anniversary all week and was fully aware of it yesterday but couldn’t bring myself to concentrate long enough to write this post then. I’m confident Dad would appreciate the quirk of it being 101 days anyhow. So I’m going to keep this short […]

When time is limited

When someone is told (or they decide) that their time is limited, at somewhere or something, I’ve observed an almost primal attempt to do more, fit more in, go further or faster, squeeze maximum effort into the remaining time; that or an almost instantaneous acceptance that time is limited so there’s not much point trying […]

A game of odds #cancer

A week ago I wrote a post explaining Dad’s latest situation with #cholangiocarcinoma Don’t give up the ship, fight her till she sinks. At the time we’d just seen his oncologist and heard the news that Dad’s one remaining option was to have chemotherapy in an attempt to stem the tumour in his stomach bleeding, which […]

The beginning of the end?

Tomorrow is my second blogging birthday, at the time I started to blog I really didn’t know whether I’d enjoy it or what I’d talk about. I knew that I’d have some stuff to share though (never really short of an opinion) and I also felt that cancer would feature in these posts….I’m not sure […]

Fitbit – Jiminy Cricket on a belt clip

I got a fitbit for Christmas, it didn’t arrive until early January, but it was well worth the wait. I absolutely love it, in fact I think it’s one of the best pressies I’ve ever received…high praise indeed. A what I hear you ask? What is it? Why is it so cool? And why does […]