I have just one more day to attend at the medical school in Keele before I can drive away from ten years' study. Although I return on July 14th for my graduation ceremony, it is now that I can begin to reflect on the enormity of the last decade of my life.
It started with the death of my first wife from breast cancer. Having unexpectedly met my second wife later that year, I made the risky decision to pursue the long road to a career in medicine. I embarked on a first degree in Medical Biochemistry before being thwarted after just one semester due to kidney failure. Nine months on dialysis were rewarded with a successful kidney transplant. The birth of my daughter just after my original kidney failure shone a bright light on our lives but then the light went out when she succumbed to meningococcal septicaemia at just 15 months of age.
It was a hard decision to carry on with medicine after that but tomorrow will be the last day of my quest. Barring miracles, I will start the process of giving something back at the Wrexham Maelor hospital in early August. I have nothing but admiration for the students at my medical school all of whom have far more maturity than I ever did at their age. They are also infinitely more intelligent than I could ever hope to be. It is hard to adequately convey the extent of their dedication and focus. It has kept me on my my toes being surrounded by so many bright minds and taught me far more than I could ever teach them. They are an inspiring bunch with the world at their feet - and deservedly so.
When we begin our posts as junior doctors five weeks hence, I'm sure we will often look back on our time at medical school and the friends we made and the lessons we learned. Many of my colleagues are not yet 25 with the biggest hurdle safely negotiated. At the age of 45, I can only say that learning becomes more challenging with the passage of the years. I wish them all luck in their careers and look forward to my own. This has been a long journey which I could not hope to have achieved without the love and support of my amazing wife and family. I wish Dad could have been around to know that I had definitely made it but remain grateful for his enthusiasm and guidance.
When I was working in the coca cola factory in Wakefield in 1994, days like tomorrow seemed to belong to other people. I have stretched myself to the limits of my capacity and have savoured every moment. We really are never too old even though it sometimes might feel like it.
Thursday, 26 June 2014
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
British Values
In recent weeks, a clearer picture has started to emerge of what current British values really are. As the politicians seek to take the moral high ground in their endless quests for power at all costs, I take the opportunity to reflect on what values we have in Britain.
We are obsessed by our relationship with Europe and are about to be dumped by the Scots as the Union begins it's inevitable demise. We have just returned to the economic levels we enjoyed before the financial crash even though the resurgence has largely been achieved by the same route which got us here in the first place. Levels of personal debt are being promoted by another cynical Government more concerned with it's own chances of re-election next May.
We have a worryingly high rate of teenage pregnancy. We have a bigger public sector than France. We have a health time bomb ticking underneath the very foundations of our allegedly beloved NHS in the form of booze, obesity, diabetes, smoking, lack of exercise and diets dripping in the high glycaemic index sugar procured from supermarkets who could scarcely do more to destroy whatever community spirit we might once have had. We obsessed with moaning about the quality of our free health service while the majority seem oblivious of their role in it's downfall.
We bemoan immigrants having their faith having long since discarded our own. As church congregations dwindle, mosques and temples continue their relentless spread. Where we do little to promote the benefits of faith to our young, immigrant families have the good sense to retain their faith. Go to the Law schools and Medical schools and see the students. Every picture tells a story.
British people have new Gods. We have gambled a fortune in recent days on England winning the football world cup. Football and money continue to attract the British although both remain bereft of real value. As I write, the England footballers who are paid morally indefensible sums of money for reasons I will never understand are being urged to try and sing the national anthem at the beginning of their forthcoming matches. Being urged to try?
At the recent European elections, an outcry was heard when it became obvious that the anti-European UKIP had won the day. British values dictate that in the centenary of the beginning of the Great War in which our forebears laid down their lives so that we could enjoy our freedom, only a third of us can even be bothered to exercise our right to vote.
A recent school trip to Barcelona made the headlines because of another set of British values. The teachers were so drunk, they started to fight with each other and thus the example was set for another generation. Where I live, the local council wants to close two of the last remaining faith schools in a cynical attempt to finish the secular job off.
The modern British value is to borrow as much we can in the vain hope we will ever be able to repay it thus guaranteeing a return to the previous recessions for the same reasons.
A British value which has come to the fore in recent times is our ability to eat mountains of food of dubious nutritional content as food banks continue to prosper. We throw away as much food as we eat and the greedy supermarkets are equally culpable. And still the waste goes on less than fifty years after the end of the rationing which guaranteed such a good start in life for our grandparents. We still have the same number of legs as our grandparents but prefer the car even for short journeys.
We pertain to love and cherish our NHS and yet there is little evidence to support that view in the lifestyle choices of the many.
Our prisons are full at a time when our churches have never been so empty.
The British values to which Michael Gove refer are not clear to me but if he intends to teach the values to which I have referred, God help us all.
We are obsessed by our relationship with Europe and are about to be dumped by the Scots as the Union begins it's inevitable demise. We have just returned to the economic levels we enjoyed before the financial crash even though the resurgence has largely been achieved by the same route which got us here in the first place. Levels of personal debt are being promoted by another cynical Government more concerned with it's own chances of re-election next May.
We have a worryingly high rate of teenage pregnancy. We have a bigger public sector than France. We have a health time bomb ticking underneath the very foundations of our allegedly beloved NHS in the form of booze, obesity, diabetes, smoking, lack of exercise and diets dripping in the high glycaemic index sugar procured from supermarkets who could scarcely do more to destroy whatever community spirit we might once have had. We obsessed with moaning about the quality of our free health service while the majority seem oblivious of their role in it's downfall.
We bemoan immigrants having their faith having long since discarded our own. As church congregations dwindle, mosques and temples continue their relentless spread. Where we do little to promote the benefits of faith to our young, immigrant families have the good sense to retain their faith. Go to the Law schools and Medical schools and see the students. Every picture tells a story.
British people have new Gods. We have gambled a fortune in recent days on England winning the football world cup. Football and money continue to attract the British although both remain bereft of real value. As I write, the England footballers who are paid morally indefensible sums of money for reasons I will never understand are being urged to try and sing the national anthem at the beginning of their forthcoming matches. Being urged to try?
At the recent European elections, an outcry was heard when it became obvious that the anti-European UKIP had won the day. British values dictate that in the centenary of the beginning of the Great War in which our forebears laid down their lives so that we could enjoy our freedom, only a third of us can even be bothered to exercise our right to vote.
A recent school trip to Barcelona made the headlines because of another set of British values. The teachers were so drunk, they started to fight with each other and thus the example was set for another generation. Where I live, the local council wants to close two of the last remaining faith schools in a cynical attempt to finish the secular job off.
The modern British value is to borrow as much we can in the vain hope we will ever be able to repay it thus guaranteeing a return to the previous recessions for the same reasons.
A British value which has come to the fore in recent times is our ability to eat mountains of food of dubious nutritional content as food banks continue to prosper. We throw away as much food as we eat and the greedy supermarkets are equally culpable. And still the waste goes on less than fifty years after the end of the rationing which guaranteed such a good start in life for our grandparents. We still have the same number of legs as our grandparents but prefer the car even for short journeys.
We pertain to love and cherish our NHS and yet there is little evidence to support that view in the lifestyle choices of the many.
Our prisons are full at a time when our churches have never been so empty.
The British values to which Michael Gove refer are not clear to me but if he intends to teach the values to which I have referred, God help us all.
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