Peter’s Hospital Diary

I have frequently mentioned a fellow blogger John and his disabled rants blog – so it is with great sadness that I read the post from his mother, Margaret, saying that John passed away peacfully in his sleep yesterday. The full text is here.

I never met John in person – in fact he found me and my blog, and I accidentally marked his first comment as ‘Spam’! It wasn’t until a few months later that I recovered it and added a reply, forging a friendship in cyberspace, re-inforced by our cross postings and the occasional e mail, and it is on this basis that I write the following.

John was in a difficult position. Having survived a stem cell transplant to overcome leukaemia, he developed chronic GvHd, which, coupled with the after effects of a pseudomonas infection in his lungs, left him in a physically poor condition, leading ultimately to his his being wheelchair bound.

His blog chronicled both his trials and tribulations in dealing with the day to day difficulties this brought him as well as his ongoing treatment by ‘Merlin’ during his frequent visits to “Heath Towers”. His tales of Merlin ‘and his fellow wizards’, told in his unique style, certainly made me smile, and I know that many of you also found his blog equally entertaining!

While I think he held his health care team in great affection, the same could not be said of his local bureaucrats, with whom he felt anger and frustration in equal measure. Ironically he had recently won a long running battle to obtain the grants necessary to enable the conversion and modification of his house that would have improved the quality of his life. Sadly it was too late for him to gain the benefit from it.

However it was John’s strength of character, and his determination not to let his disability affect his enjoyment of life, that shone like a beacon to us all. He had a love of cooking – in particular, T-bone steaks – and for a while our discussions of the ideal ‘bacon sarnie’, together with those of other contributors, filled a few pages of this blog! (We never did come up with the ideal recipe!).

John, if you you are reading this on some celestial internet – you fought a good fight. Thank you for inspiring me in my fight.

My thoughts are with your wife and daughter, and all the other members of your extended family.