We were up nice and early to greet Simon Lord who had travelled all the way from Leicester and slept in a lay-by all night. Well, inside his car in a lay-by! Simon is a great character, absolutely nuts and full of beans. Well he was after Patrick had cooked a great breakfast.
Then 'The One Show' team arrived and filmed us getting ready, packing the car with placards and we all finally set off for Carlisle. The Police had given me a number to call if we needed help at anytime, but I was confident that all would go well.
When we arrived at about 1145, there were so many media there that they outnumbered protesters, but what a lovely atmosphere on a beautiful sunny Cumbrian morning, it felt so good. We unloaded the placards and banners along with plenty of drinking water. The last thing I needed was to become dehydrated and be admitted to the hospital!!!
Media present were...
The BBC's 'The One Show', which will be going out on Friday night at 7pm.
ITV Borders Lookaround
BBC Look North
Radio Cumbria
The Cumberland News
The News & Star
Those Demonstrators present, and I love you all...
Sue, who made up the excellent handouts.
Simon her husband who protested better than any student I've ever known!
Kyle, who came all the way from Harrogate with placard and 'riot' T shirt.
Dave from our local support group.
Simon all the way from Oxford :-) and what a dynamo!
Rob, great guy, my mate from Uni.
Patrick from Brighton representing 'Civility'.
Red Russ and Michele, lovely people :-)!
Pat, Eddy's wife who gave a great interview.
Janet, all the way from Bingley.
Denise, my Uni great buddy from last year.
Eddy, another great guy from our support group.
Hope I haven't missed anyone! I'm going to e-mail you all over the next few days just to thank you again, you should all be so proud of yourselves. It's easy to offer support, wish me well, say you'll be there in spirit, and I really do appreciate that, the whole thing would never have been possible without you. I got so many texts and phone calls of support and I just couldn't reply because so much was going on. But let us recognise these people as the 'foot soldiers', the ones who got out of bed and travelled to stand by my side in Carlisle this morning. You are very special people and I would support you if you needed me.
I have already seen the local TV and it looks great. It's also made local radio on every bulletin. For those of you out of the area I will put links to the TV on this Blog as soon as it comes up, probably tomorrow.
- Today we raised awareness of Prostate Cancer, a disease that kills 11,000 men a year in the UK.
- Today we made our local NHS Trust think hard about how they should communicate.
- Today we also made sure that newly diagnosed Prostate Cancer patients at the Cumberland Infirmary will be better supported in the years to come. And thanks to the BBC's 'The One Show', the message will reach every home in the country this week. WHAT A RESULT!!!!
WHAT NOW? An early night.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Hi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI just read about your threat from the NHS on the BBC news and wanted to show you that you have the support of another member of the public. You have the support of everyone except the NHS bosses who want to protect their own backs and ridiculous salaries.
They have no grounds for issuing a threat! as a public body I can assure you they have, under the English common law, absolutely no right to sue for defamation. and if they tried, your Fair Comment as a defence is unshakeable. so they are making themselves look stupid for making empty threats and for bullying a cancer patient! You would have thought they'd have better lawyers...
Very best wishes
Alexandra Singer