I get a pill for pain
An injection for injury
Medicine for malady
Yet I crave food for the soul
- a daily dose of nature
The response of the medical team is always seemed to be an artificial approach based on medication. I got outside just once in my 120 days of being an inpatient. A porter kindly opened up the hospital garden for me to have a look en-route to getting a scan. Even that was very manicured.
September 2023 is Blood Cancer Awareness Month. It is also Child Cancer Awareness Month. Every day 10 children in the UK are diagnosed with cancer. Of those lucky enough to survive, many will have long-term side-effects that may significantly impact their lives forever.
I am posting one poem per day to recognise this and raise money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. This charity provides sailing and other outdoor adventures for children and young people aged 8-24 who have been treated for cancer. But it’s more than that. There’s a package of support around this including siblings, return trips, volunteering opportunities and so on. The Trust also works hard to ensure their work is environmentally sustainable. You can make a donation HERE!
I love and hate this poem, it conjures up many conflicting emotions in me. I love that in the moment of writing you were able to step back from the experience of receiving the pills, injections and medicines and hate that you were in a position to need them. I hate that you were not able to experience the sun on your face, wind in your hair and smell the landscape while you were getting treatment during Covid and love that you are here to share your experience with us. So many levels of extremes sitting beside each other in such few words and lines (tanga-cinqua-esk?).
Your words, their pace and message perfectly sum up some of the many contradictions in the ‘do no harm’ NHS. The poem should be given to every healthcare professional and manager to reflect on and they should be made to consider the impact of a purely medicated approach to health management. In the absence of this thank goodness for small acts of kindness. I hope you have been enjoying the warmth of the past few days, the elongation of shadows and the flight schools swirling in the sky.
Big virtual hugs xxx
Although modern medicine can do amazing things to prolong life, the hospital environment does not always provide a desirable quality of life. It’s wonderful if the staff, along with positive attitudes of mind, words, art and music can provide some of that food and healing for the soul.
‘If of thy earthly store is left two loaves, sell one, and with the dole buy hyacinths, to feed the soul.’
Our headmaster at school read this out in assembly one day, and I have remembered it ever since!
This poem has inspired me to write one of my own, but it needs a bit more work before I share it with you! 😊