As Fate Would Have It

Most of my life I’ve been happy and content, but the cosmos has a weird sense of humour and life shattering events can change things in almost a split second.

Cancer twice tried to take my life, but failed on both attempts. I met, married and divorced the love of my life. I was destined I thought to be alone but once again I have found love and its been a part of my life already for 25 years.

I’ve also found myself without a home. Sofa surfing became a routine. Different hostels in different towns provided a temporary roof over my head and I felt lost. I was overwhelmed with a sense of uselessness and an incapability to get anything even remotely right.

I finally ended back up in my birth town. The council have actually been a good help, finding me lodgings in a guest house. There were hoops I had to jump through, but hey, it wouldn’t be local government without those!

My immediate problem was the NHS. I don’t mean to disparage the heroic nurses or doctors on the front line but we were after all in the middle of the lockdown phase of Covid and my  problem was with trying to register with a GP or a Dentist. I tried for months but nowhere would register me.  My health issues are severe and i need very thorough and regular health check ups as a side effect of previous treatments I had undergone. My frustration grew with every attempt at a different surgery when I would once again be told that I couldn’t register quite simply because I didn’t have a permanent address!

And then out of the blue came a telephone interview from the Groundswell Project. I’m not going to disclose the full interview but i’ll happily share one of the more relevant parts. I was told that it was my right to be able to register, that I didn’t need to provide proof of address and that they couldn’t refuse me when I rang.

I was obviously startled by this, and the very next day I acted upon the information give. Armed with this information I managed to register at a doctors and once again began my slow path to recovery.

Several months past, almost a year in fact, and I received a most welcome phone call. It was my interviewer inviting me to join the growing team of Listen Up reporters around the country.

And my point of contact told me that my interview had helped, along with many others, to instigate changes to the way the NHS managed things in the Greater Manchester area. I felt both honoured and respected that a small interview could have had such a large impact, and to help so many other people across the region, I felt, once again, valued as a person.

I instantly accepted the role and I will commit to helping those that may find themselves in need. I am glad to join the team and I will devote what time I can, investigating local policies and reporting on those. I hope to once again assist in bringing about change in order to help those that need that helping hand, as I once did, and I hope that my future reports show this.

Please feel free to leave comments below, and I will speak to you all again very soon.