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Surviving Adversity: Change, Acceptance & Surrender

Surviving Adversity: Change, Acceptance & Surrender

Tottering uncertainly into the dim light of 2021, slowly emerging from the long dark tunnel that was 2020, an unbelievable realisation slowly dawns on me: if I make it to July, I will have lived 50 years on this planet – that’s 46 to 48 more than my parents were warned to expect for either …

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Risk, Isolation & Survival in Plagued Times

Risk, Isolation & Survival in Plagued Times

It seems we are living through a massive crisis which will change us forever. It has hit quickly. Suddenly, we are being addressed by our leaders in tones reminiscent of wartime. Our elderly and vulnerable are most at risk: some of us will become sick ourselves (perhaps very sick), lose loved ones, bury colleagues. The …

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Chronic Illness – Taking Back Control

Chronic Illness – Taking Back Control

One of the phrases that has come to stick in our collective consciousness in recent times is the slogan for Leave.eu’s referendum campaign, “Take Back Control”. Of course, the Brexit debate is a cauldron of complexity I am certainly not aiming to discuss here. But this slogan has caused me to think about the concept …

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Joan McFarlane – My Pioneering Donor

Joan McFarlane – My Pioneering Donor

My life has been blessed by the fortitude and selflessness of brave women. I have written and spoken recently about my mother and the work she did to raise money and awareness for bone marrow (stem cell) transplantation during the earliest stages of its development. The early 70’s was “the Jurassic period” in bone marrow …

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Pain, Pleasure, Procrastination… And then there’s Paris

Pain, Pleasure, Procrastination… And then there’s Paris

In the last 2 weeks, there has been pain (a lot – both emotional and physical), pleasure (a lot – mostly emotional and quelle surprise not much physical) and procrastination (a lot:  had a difficult essay to write for a course, not to mention a bad dose of blog-block to boot.) Taking my own advice in line …

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