The five year old daughter of one of my Facebook friends is suffering from Aplasic Anemia which is a condition where the bone marrow does not make enough red blood cells and is quite serious.
Like the Antony Nolan trust they are apealing for bone marrow donors so please if you can consider becoming a donor it would be much apreciated. At the moment Daisy is under the care of Bristol Childrens Hospital and I am sure they would love to hear from you.
More information can be found by searching for Daisy Meely Trust on Facebook
Andy
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Friday, 5 November 2010
Oxshott
My thoughts are with those injured in the crash at Oxshott this afternoon. A cement mixer fell of an overbridge and landed on top of the 15.05 Guilford to Waterloo via Effingham service. Fortunately there seems to be no fatalities but several serious injuries.
Andy
Andy
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
By request!
Several people have asked me to carry on relating my railway memories so here we go again.
Certainly over the years there have been many varied and good times, however there have been times when it has been anything but fun.
Over the years I have had a sweet and sour poured over me and believe me that is hard to get out of your hair! Also been subject to a prolonged snowball fight but the worst thing that ever happened to me was being robbed at the wrong end of a 14 inch carving knife. Despite all the training you get that you just hand the money over when it happens to you you feel so incensed that its happened to you, you do things that no sensible person would. When I was robbed I was so furious that I gave chase, fortunately for me he got away as god knows what would of happened if I had caught him.
Fortunately I have never been involved in the kind of incident that happened on a train a month or so ago. There was a fight on the train which involved multiple stabbings and a shooting! When the injured people arrived at hospital ther asailants followed them and started spraying acid around. The police closed the station until lunchtime the following day leading to comments on the lines of typical railway cant organise a p**s up in a brewery even though it was on police orders. A day on Southeastern can be an education and an eye opener!
The other thing that crops up from time to time are fatalities. They say that the first one you see is the worst but having seen 7 now it still turns my stomach but you have to get on with the job in hand but afterwards it can give you sleepless nights to say the least. Mind you thats nothing to what a train driver goes through as ther is nothing they can do to avoid the situation. Fortunately we have a good chain of care procedure in place for staff involved in this kind of incident.
Anyway thats the 'bad' parts dealt with, happier times next time.
Andy
Certainly over the years there have been many varied and good times, however there have been times when it has been anything but fun.
Over the years I have had a sweet and sour poured over me and believe me that is hard to get out of your hair! Also been subject to a prolonged snowball fight but the worst thing that ever happened to me was being robbed at the wrong end of a 14 inch carving knife. Despite all the training you get that you just hand the money over when it happens to you you feel so incensed that its happened to you, you do things that no sensible person would. When I was robbed I was so furious that I gave chase, fortunately for me he got away as god knows what would of happened if I had caught him.
Fortunately I have never been involved in the kind of incident that happened on a train a month or so ago. There was a fight on the train which involved multiple stabbings and a shooting! When the injured people arrived at hospital ther asailants followed them and started spraying acid around. The police closed the station until lunchtime the following day leading to comments on the lines of typical railway cant organise a p**s up in a brewery even though it was on police orders. A day on Southeastern can be an education and an eye opener!
The other thing that crops up from time to time are fatalities. They say that the first one you see is the worst but having seen 7 now it still turns my stomach but you have to get on with the job in hand but afterwards it can give you sleepless nights to say the least. Mind you thats nothing to what a train driver goes through as ther is nothing they can do to avoid the situation. Fortunately we have a good chain of care procedure in place for staff involved in this kind of incident.
Anyway thats the 'bad' parts dealt with, happier times next time.
Andy
Friday, 22 October 2010
An open letter
An open letter to David Cameron (and other politicians)
Dear Dave
Now I realise that you have to balance income against expenditure, in fact that's what we have all been doing for many years.
In this so called civilised society I thought that it was incumbent on every member of society and that includes the government to look after the less fortunate members of society.
I realise that you do not know me personally but I suffer from incurable Non Hodgkins Lymphoma which is cancer of the lymphatic system.Luckily enough I was treated with a trial drug called Ofatumumab which has put me into remission. However I have been saddened to read that this drug will not be licensed as the powers to be have decided that it is not value for money. I was wondering if you could perhaps tell me the value of my life?
In todays paper it is also reported that free prescriptions for those suffering from serious illness will no longer be available and that you will no longer be honouring the pledge to get cancer test results back within a week. Excuse me but its bad enough to be told that you have a life threatning illness without any delay in getting the results before starting treatment. Have you any idea just how many drugs you need to treat cancer for example and having to find the money for multiple prescriptions is added stress when you are ill and probably on a reduced income.
In conclusion please please remember that money can be replaced but people can not.
Yours Sincerely
Disalusioned
Dear Dave
Now I realise that you have to balance income against expenditure, in fact that's what we have all been doing for many years.
In this so called civilised society I thought that it was incumbent on every member of society and that includes the government to look after the less fortunate members of society.
I realise that you do not know me personally but I suffer from incurable Non Hodgkins Lymphoma which is cancer of the lymphatic system.Luckily enough I was treated with a trial drug called Ofatumumab which has put me into remission. However I have been saddened to read that this drug will not be licensed as the powers to be have decided that it is not value for money. I was wondering if you could perhaps tell me the value of my life?
In todays paper it is also reported that free prescriptions for those suffering from serious illness will no longer be available and that you will no longer be honouring the pledge to get cancer test results back within a week. Excuse me but its bad enough to be told that you have a life threatning illness without any delay in getting the results before starting treatment. Have you any idea just how many drugs you need to treat cancer for example and having to find the money for multiple prescriptions is added stress when you are ill and probably on a reduced income.
In conclusion please please remember that money can be replaced but people can not.
Yours Sincerely
Disalusioned
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Updates
Hello
With the passage of time and other commitments it has become all to easy to lose the thread about some of the things I have written about and threatened to continue but never did.
Firstly I did start to tell you about my life on the railway but I suppose you could say it has run out of steam! If anyone is interested let me know and I will add some bits and pieces at intervals in the future.
Some of my longstanding readers (or should it be long suffering) may remember me writing about the ghost on the road over Bluebell Hill between Maidstone and Chatham. It has long been an assumption that it was related to a fatal road crash in 1965 when three women were killed including a bride to be. I have been reading a book that claims the sightings go back to 1934 which tends to rule out the 1965 crash theory! This was put down to a murder which took place in 1916. However what I can not understand is the fact that sightings are not consistant. I have always thought that such sightings were consistant, for example on the anniversary of the incident but in this case the sightings have not followed this pattern. The most recent recorded sightings were in the late 70s and early 80s but none have been reported since and I can not understand why as the road the A229 is a very busy road and surely there must of been some sightings or are people frightened to come forward and say what they have seen?
Will put up some more pictures from Le Touquet next time including some picture of some lovely French pastries!
Some of you may be aware that I had a very important personal decision to make, now I have made that decision I feel a lot happier in myself.
My old school has started an old boys site that sends messages out on Twitter so I have had to open an account there, if any one wants to 'follow' me on there you can find me at andchafri
Andy
With the passage of time and other commitments it has become all to easy to lose the thread about some of the things I have written about and threatened to continue but never did.
Firstly I did start to tell you about my life on the railway but I suppose you could say it has run out of steam! If anyone is interested let me know and I will add some bits and pieces at intervals in the future.
Some of my longstanding readers (or should it be long suffering) may remember me writing about the ghost on the road over Bluebell Hill between Maidstone and Chatham. It has long been an assumption that it was related to a fatal road crash in 1965 when three women were killed including a bride to be. I have been reading a book that claims the sightings go back to 1934 which tends to rule out the 1965 crash theory! This was put down to a murder which took place in 1916. However what I can not understand is the fact that sightings are not consistant. I have always thought that such sightings were consistant, for example on the anniversary of the incident but in this case the sightings have not followed this pattern. The most recent recorded sightings were in the late 70s and early 80s but none have been reported since and I can not understand why as the road the A229 is a very busy road and surely there must of been some sightings or are people frightened to come forward and say what they have seen?
Will put up some more pictures from Le Touquet next time including some picture of some lovely French pastries!
Some of you may be aware that I had a very important personal decision to make, now I have made that decision I feel a lot happier in myself.
My old school has started an old boys site that sends messages out on Twitter so I have had to open an account there, if any one wants to 'follow' me on there you can find me at andchafri
Andy
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Hello
Hello
It seems ages since I last posted but my life is changing in a way which it should of done ages ago.
I can only say that it is not to do with health related issues and i am not prepared to say any more than that but i am sure that any one who knows me will understand why.
I have been trying to upload some photos from Le Touquet but every time I try and add a picture it will not let me publish the entry. Grr and multiple Grrs! I will try again in the week and if that fails tell you about it in words!
Andy
It seems ages since I last posted but my life is changing in a way which it should of done ages ago.
I can only say that it is not to do with health related issues and i am not prepared to say any more than that but i am sure that any one who knows me will understand why.
I have been trying to upload some photos from Le Touquet but every time I try and add a picture it will not let me publish the entry. Grr and multiple Grrs! I will try again in the week and if that fails tell you about it in words!
Andy
Le Touquet
Hello
It seems ages since I last posted but I have a lot of personal issues at the moment, fortunately not health ones. Will tell you more when things are resolved. In the meantime a couple of pictures from Le Touquet, hope to do some more soon and tell you about it but that must wait for the moment.
Jaws spotted in the fish market
How could I not include this one!
The Beach
Eat where the locals do-fixed price menu €14
Doing what I like most-nothing!
Andy
It seems ages since I last posted but I have a lot of personal issues at the moment, fortunately not health ones. Will tell you more when things are resolved. In the meantime a couple of pictures from Le Touquet, hope to do some more soon and tell you about it but that must wait for the moment.
Jaws spotted in the fish market
How could I not include this one!
The Beach
Eat where the locals do-fixed price menu €14
Doing what I like most-nothing!
Andy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)