As part of these words last week, I drew your attention to Natalie Hunter, the young mother-of-four who is the daughter of a friend of mine in the strokie community.
Natalie has just been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is blogging about her situation at http://thathunterwoman.blogspot.co.uk. She is doing so in the hope that 'if it helps one person who is going through what I'm going through, then it is worth it."
Almost as soon as I put my words to bed, her blog helped Nat in a totally unexpected way. Last Thursday night, as she waited for her first chemotherapy session after it was delayed 24 hours, the Hunter household was broken into; a Kindle and two wedding rings were among the items stolen.
News quickly circulated through the stroke-survivor community and via the blog. A fundraising exercise began in the hope of getting enough money together at least to replace the Kindle. That has now been done, local media in Nat's home town have been alerted to her situation, she has been interviewed widely - and the fundraising isn't done with yet.
The way people have rallied round to help has been wonderful; certain individuals should be very proud of the part they have played in this story. I know that friends of mine have seen Nat's blog as a result of reading about it here and the publicity I've given it on the business networking circuit. Thank you to everyone involved. I'll keep you updated with the situation.
As for me, it's been an interesting week. I gave a well-received talk about my stroke experience to a 4Networking lunch in Stafford on Monday, where I met someone who should be able to help me produce a good video for my website and my new YouTube channel.
Tuesday, of course, was 'Get beaten to death by therapist Emily' day. Only this time was different; as Mrs Warrior was on holiday from work, she was able to come with me. Not to hold my hand; oh no, Emily strictly forbade that (lol) but to see for herself what goes on.
What went on, in fact, was very positive. Emily is concentrating now on my left foot and how to get heel and sole to sit evenly on the ground. They haven't done this for many years, if ever, but the stroke made it even more pronounced. Yet more intense working deep into the muscles seems to be helping and I was pleased to say that I walked quite quickly, one could even say ran, down the corridor outside Emily's room at the end of the session; the proof is here: http://tinyurl.com/o4vfks4
As a result of that (and I freely admit I wouldn't have done it without Mrs Warrior's 'encouragement') I attempted on Tuesday evening to walk around our local Aldi (other discount supermarkets are available, lol) without my stick. It wasn't pretty, I staggered a bit at times, but it was another achievement. Another victory for 'there is no such word as can't'. And a good end to a week which confirmed my faith in human nature.
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