“I can’t watch anymore of this.”
I said, hauling myself out of my chair and stumbling out of our living room - very low in mood and close to tears.
Kathy had chosen the documentary TV programme based in Guy’s Hospital and what they were showing was harrowing in the extreme.
“Why the hell do people want to watch something like this - is this entertainment? Is it in the interests of ‘the people’ it should be shown?” Have we turned into a society of ghouls?
I thought to myself, sitting glowering in our conservatory.
A young girl, 7 - 8 years old or younger. was shown having most of a growth removed from her brain. She, bemused, and her anguished parents were interviewed a week later by a consultant and told it was cancer - cancer of the most aggressive kind and they would have to start an aggressive treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy called the Milan therapy. Mostly unaware of her fate, this poor little girl would be having to go through not only the usual abuse of the body and the pain these treatments imposed but a much concentrated form too. Already in torment the anxious father asked what the record of this treatment is.
The parents were told in one study 17% success; in another study 15% success. It was at this point I left the room.
“Why the hell do people want to watch something like this - is this entertainment? Is it in the interests of ‘the people’ it should be shown? Have we turned into a society of ghouls? Is this the state of our human compassion? Are we now so blunted we enjoy misfortune so much? Do I want to be a member of this human race any longer?”
I became overwhelmed, saturated in misery.
Then, a little later on I thought about the other side of this human race: my friends, colleagues and peers in NCODP - those lovely people I often look forward to being with and working with and the individual positive projects we are all involved with - with loads and loads of compassion, cheeriness and affection.
And this - emotional peer support at a distance brought me out of the negative.
And I thought this real, small account of how peer to peer support can work worth recording!
Heddwch.
Mike.
N.B. Kathy told me afterwards the girl was doing well at the end of the programme.
I said, hauling myself out of my chair and stumbling out of our living room - very low in mood and close to tears.
Kathy had chosen the documentary TV programme based in Guy’s Hospital and what they were showing was harrowing in the extreme.
“Why the hell do people want to watch something like this - is this entertainment? Is it in the interests of ‘the people’ it should be shown?” Have we turned into a society of ghouls?
I thought to myself, sitting glowering in our conservatory.
A young girl, 7 - 8 years old or younger. was shown having most of a growth removed from her brain. She, bemused, and her anguished parents were interviewed a week later by a consultant and told it was cancer - cancer of the most aggressive kind and they would have to start an aggressive treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy called the Milan therapy. Mostly unaware of her fate, this poor little girl would be having to go through not only the usual abuse of the body and the pain these treatments imposed but a much concentrated form too. Already in torment the anxious father asked what the record of this treatment is.
The parents were told in one study 17% success; in another study 15% success. It was at this point I left the room.
“Why the hell do people want to watch something like this - is this entertainment? Is it in the interests of ‘the people’ it should be shown? Have we turned into a society of ghouls? Is this the state of our human compassion? Are we now so blunted we enjoy misfortune so much? Do I want to be a member of this human race any longer?”
I became overwhelmed, saturated in misery.
Then, a little later on I thought about the other side of this human race: my friends, colleagues and peers in NCODP - those lovely people I often look forward to being with and working with and the individual positive projects we are all involved with - with loads and loads of compassion, cheeriness and affection.
And this - emotional peer support at a distance brought me out of the negative.
And I thought this real, small account of how peer to peer support can work worth recording!
Heddwch.
Mike.
N.B. Kathy told me afterwards the girl was doing well at the end of the programme.
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