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News and Comment December 2022

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28 December - Inside I am Dancing

I have wondered whether or not this a a suitable subject for Bonkers as we wait for Bexley Council to sober up. The only justification is that it confirms my opinion that the health services in Tory Britain are a disgraceful failure and it may just help someone, if they have enough money.

When I lived near Aldershot then ‘The Home of the British Army’ my daughter was spotted by the army while performing at a school gymnastics display. They said she was good enough to be trained for the 1988 Olympics. I spent many an afternoon at their gymnasium idling away my time on a running machine while she was doing something more demanding.

Unfortunately the training conflicted with her love of ballet because different muscles were being developed. Kirsteen used to win all the local dancing competitions and Hampshire County Council paid for her to attend the Italia Conti School of Dance and Stage etc. Those were the days!

There she trained with several well known names most of which I have forgotten; except Naomi Campbell and a much younger Martine McCutcheon who would sit on Kirsteen’s knee.

Kirsty passed all her exams and was recruited into one of the London ballet companies, performed at the Edinburgh Festival and Sadler’s Wells and in a Channel 4 film which I have on a Betamax tape somewhere. But then disaster struck. The disaster was called Multiple Sclerosis.

Me magazineHer story was picked up by The Daily Mirror, The Sun and the lifestyle magazine ‘Me’ from which this picture is taken. A company based in her home town gave her an almost new car and Esther Rantzen a job on her then popular TV programme ‘That’s Life’. Except for time out to obtain a degree in journalism Kirsty has always been in full time employment.

Her job in journalism and her roots in show business has provided a wide range of contacts in politics, newspapers, film, TV and radio. Best not to mention names but if I did it might start with Boris Johnson. (Interviewed once.)

She is fairly well connected in the world of medicine too and been involved with various Multiple Sclerosis trials over the years; which brings me to the point of this holiday filler.

When I went to help her out of her car four months ago she declined some of the offered assistance and unsteadily walked to her brother’s house with minimal support. She had been prescribed a new pill by a friendly consultant in a London hospital. It is called Frampridine and has transformed Kirsteen’s life. Mobility is hugely improved and she can now walk hesitantly around her house unsupported. A variety of other things are improved too; appetite and tiredness among them.

And our bloody useless health services will not provide it.

Fortunately because of the friendly consultant and Dad’s £200 a month Kirsty continues to improve although that will plateau out. Frampridine is not a cure and according to NICE will help only a small proportion of MS sufferers. If they had an ounce of decency they would prescribe it for a short time to see if it helped that minority.

If they were not liars they would quote an 80% success rate as their counterparts in other countries do but they would rather see suffering than spend money. My understanding is that other countries quote 80% because they take account of the full spectrum of improvements but in England only mobility is considered to be important.

Multiple Sclerosis victims might be well advised to scrape together the money for at least two month’s worth of pills to see if it begins to make an improvement to their lives.

By the way, I have still not heard from Bexley Group Practice after Erith Urgent Care Centre told my GP that he should phone me urgently. That was three weeks ago.

Note: Yet another obscure film title. Sorry!

 

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