I was sitting in the sun outside a pub in Tamworth on Monday afternoon, having a drink with a former colleague who I hadn't seen for a couple of years, when my phone rang unexpectedly. The call was from a producer at BBC Radio WM in Birmingham.
Regular readers will recall that I appeared on WM in March when I was interviewed on the Graham Torrington Show. I'm not giving any secrets away if I tell you that was a pre-recorded interview done a couple of weeks in advance at a time of my choosing. This time, they wanted me to appear live by phone on the Adrian Goldberg breakfast show the following morning. It was Stroke Awareness Day and they wanted me to talk about my experience.
I don't tend to be at my best in the early morning, having worked evening shifts for 17 years, but this was another chance to publicise the cause of stroke education. "I'll do it, but can we make it as late as possible?" I said. We agreed that they would ring me at 8.35am and I set about telling friends to set their alarms for the following morning.
Late on Monday evening, the BBC rang back to ask how flexible the timing could be? I've dealt with the BBC, nationally and locally, many times and I know nothing is set in stone so I said I could be 'fairly flexible." So I set my alarm for 6am and was just about coherent by the time my phone buzzed at 6.17 the following morning with a message from the producer asking if 7.20am was OK. I said it was and you can hear the results for 30 days from May 12 at http:bbc.in/1HenY2c. My interview starts about 15 minutes into the broadcast.
Having got that done and got Mrs Warrior off to work, I attempted to get a quick power-nap before heading to Derby for another pummelling by my therapist Emily Smedley, who I've mentioned here many times previously. It wasn't my regular Tuesday to visit her but the Derby Telegraph are publishing a feature about our efforts on May 23 and wanted some more pictures.
Feeling a little bit under the weather after my early start, I caught the 11.03am train from Tamworth to Derby - which goes through an area which has a notoriously poor phone signal. It was fortunate, then, that the train was in a good reception area when I took a call from a London number which I didn't recognise. In fact, it was someone from the press department of the Stroke Association, who have my details on file as a media volunteer. Sky News had been in touch with them, looking to interview a male stroke survivor of about my age - could I help?
I explained I was on my way to Derby and couldn't be back at Warrior Towers before 3.45 at the earliest, even if the trains were on time. Would that work?
Sky needed the item for their 5pm bulletin. I thought it was going to be unrealistic but after a series of phone calls between myself, the SA and Sky, it was agreed that a reporter and cameraman would meet me at Warrior Towers at 3.45pm - and I mustn't be late.
Thankfully, the train schedules worked as they should for once and I made it home. As the scene of my stroke is just a few minutes' walk away, Sky got some excellent pictures and the story ran throughout their news bulletins on the evening. It had been a thoroughly tiring day (never mind what Emily had done to me!) but I felt it had done a lot to improve stroke education.
When the Sky reporter and her cameraman were sitting in the kitchen at Warrior Towers, it almost felt as if I was back in the world of journalism again. That's unrealistic because of my health, but what I'm about now is making people more aware about stroke. If my tiring day did just the slightest to further that cause, it was worth it. You can see (but, unfortunately, not hear) the Sky piece on Emily's YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/F4VPP0xM8g8
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