I can't believe I was there! Downing Tweet Christmas Party Pt 2

I've said numerous times in this blog that it wasn't just William who got a new life when he had his transplant. It has been an incredible year for him. It has been an incredible year for Hope and Ellie who have been able to settle back at school with their friends and live the kind of life a 10 and 13 year old should live without waking up every morning the fear that their brother may die today. My own journey this year has been somewhat challenging and, at times, surreal. Like most Mums of a sick child. William and his care has dominated my life. I had to give up my work and completely fell off the social radar. There was no getting life back to normal for me after William's transplant because the life I lived before he got so sick had gone for good - my career, my partner (although he is still a good friend) and some of my other friends too. There was no picking up where I left off - I needed to start again and it isn't easy. I think this year for me can be summed up well in the chorus of Duran Duran's classic "Ordinary World" Even such a fantastic change as a life saving transplant can leave you searching where you go next. Life is certainly unrecognisable from that it was before William was born or to what it was when I lived in hospital with him month after month. I am still trying to find my way back into the 'Ordinary World' but I don't think I'm doing too badly. I look back on this year and see a near finished novel, several magazine features published, The 'Gifts of Life' images - the exhibition is postponed but the project has already had a huge impact, The 'Save Jess Campaign and Save Jess-tival and all the organ donor awareness that came out of that. I am now running the Christmas media campaign for Live Life Then Give Life with great success so far. It has been an exciting year, a whirlwind. I recently updated my website so please do have a look to see what I have been up to and what I will be getting up to in the future. It tells a very different story to that it would have done a year ago.

I am a single Mum and so can't always get out and about easily. A lot of this has been possible through social networking on Facebook and Twitter and, through those, I have made some connections with some amazing and inspiring people. Twitter, in particular, is fantastic in enabling you to connect with people who share your interests and passions. It also breaks down barriers and I have had many a conversation on Twitter with people I could never dream of connecting directly with in any other way. The Save Jess campaign utilised this by asking celebrity tweeters to forward messages about organ donation to their thousands, sometimes millions, of followers. One of the people it has been amazing to connect with on Twitter is Sarah Brown. Through Twitter, she has given us valuable support and personal encouragement towards our organ donation awareness campaigning and I have learned about many, many other campaigns and charities, including the Million Mums campaign I blogged about yesterday. If you didn't read yesterday's blog then please do now before reading onto. The message is important.

Sarah Brown has sent me messages of support and encouragement in the past but a week or two ago, I got a message from her asking for my postal address. A few days later, I received an invitation to the 'Downing Tweet Christmas Party' I had no idea what to expect. It is a very long time since I received an invitation to any party, let alone one from the Prime Minister's Wife to a party at Downing Street. Thankfully, I managed to arrange for Paul's Mum and Dad to look after William and the girls so, off I went to Downing Street. Emily Thackray and Holly Shaw were also invited and Emily and I exchanged several excited and nervous phone calls on the way. We were both grateful that we had arranged to meet and go in together and felt more confident feeling our way and networking as a pair.

That famous door, together with the Christmas tree and special road sign for the occasion.

I met some amazing people and so enjoyed hearing about them and their own passions and interests. With some of them, I shared a particular connection and hope that we will get to know each other better through twitter, following blogs and meeting up again. I'm not going to mention all those inspirational twitterers I met because I'm sure I would miss someone out and feel terrible about it but they were; people who have a disabled child or who lost a child and now run charities to support other families; people who have rebuilt their lives after a difficult break up and now help others to do the same; people who support and help Mums and families through the daily stresses and beyond; people who work in PR and have a particular interest in social networking; some young labour party supporters and political bloggers (a future PM?); writers; broadcasters; choreographers...and, of course Sarah Brown and Gordon.

I can't believe I chatted about William to the PM and his wife

Emily and I had a chat with Sarah about organ donation, cystic fibrosis and parenting a child with a medical condition. She was so down to earth it was incredible. I wasn't at all nervous, it felt just like chatting to another Mum about our children. Later, we went along to introduce Holly and found Gordon Brown there as well. Sarah introduced us to him and I had a chat with him about William and organ donation. He told me about a friend of his who had a heart transplant many years ago and assured me he "is doing everything he can" Like Sarah, he was very down to earth, easy to talk to and very genuine in his interest about William and organ donation.

Beverley Knight performing absolutely unplugged - no mic

One of the biggest supporters during the Save Jess Twitter campaign, and who often 're-tweeted' our messages, was Beverley Knight. She is a very warm and open blogger and someone who you really feel you get to know a little through her tweets. We were really happy to hear Sarah announce she was here and would be performing a couple of songs. Emily and I took the opportunity to thank her for all her support. She greeted us like friends and chatted for ages. You often think that the more famous tweeters won't remember your tweets in the way you remember theirs to you but she certainly remembered some of the exchanges I'd had with her.

She was also down to earth and absolutely lovely. She sang 'Shoulda Woulda Coulda" and "Gold", which she dedicated to all of us there. Both songs are great affirmational songs and have been made really special to me for being played by someone who has been so integral to the twittering that bought me to such an occasion on such an amazing night.

"Tweetipies" - mini mince pies with Twitter birds on them

Other celebrity twitters I chatted with included Brian Friedman from X-Factor who was very friendly and open. I told him how much William loved John and Edward and how gutted he was when they went out. I had a bit of exclusive news about them and when they may make an appearance again and was told he would see what he could do to arrange a hello for Wills, especially because we are supported by CHASE Hospice Care for Children, whom Simon Cowell is associated with. I'm not expecting anything to come out of that but we'll see. It would be an amazing and much deserved special treat for Wills, Hope and Ellie if anything does happen.

We felt quite bad because we would start chatting to people who were feeling upbeat and in a light hearted mood and would then move them with our stories about organ donation and the happy and tragic endings we have seen. The '3 people die every day' line was never far from my lips. Kirsy Allsop, from 'Location Location Location' was wonderful and moved enough to take an organ donor leaflet and form from me. We spoke at length to Margaret Vaughn, wife of Alistair Darling, who had popped next door from No. 11. She also has a dear friend who was one of the first to receive a lung transplant and is very supportive of organ donation. I did get a strong feeling how committed our Government are to improving the outcome for those waiting on transplant lists and I so hope they win the next election to continue the good work (for that, among many other reasons). The comedian, Peter Serafinowicz was also very moved. Sorry we bought the tone down right at the end of your evening Peter! To everyone I met and chatted with, every single one of you was inspiring in a different way and I am so glad to have met you. Please do stay in touch on twitter and, who knows, out paths may cross again in the real world again.

I'm sure there is more I want to say about the night. It was amazing and showed me how far I have come this year. From living a life pretty much entirely in isolation rooms in hospital and, if I am open and honest, pretty low in self confidence - to this, not just standing in No 10 with all these amazing people but everything that has happened on the way to that. It is, as I said earlier, surreal but incredible and something that I just hope I can build on now.

I'll just leave you with a link to the equivalent Friday a year ago so you can see what I mean.

Photo credits: All official No 10 Downing Street, Courtesy of @ SarahBrown (through Twitter)

Million Mums - Downing Tweet Christmas Party pt 1

I am having a wonderful, although very emotional time at the moment. It has been many years since I have felt so Christmassy. This year, I am able to relax and enjoy advent and the Christmas preparations, the Christmas concerts and sitting round the table with glitter and glue because, for the for the first time in 5 years, William, Hope, Ellie and I are home together and, barring any sudden emergencies, we will be for the foreseeable future.

William had his annual review in Birmingham last week and the transplant team are really happy with him. It is becoming clear that he has "High Functioning Asperger's Syndrome". Most children with complex 'syndromes' involving numerous health and physical aspects seem to have some characteristics that place them on the autistic spectrum. This is something I will come back to in a day or two as it is interesting and deserves a blog of it's own. A quick update was needed but today's blog is really all about one very exciting thing.

I have said on a few blogs that I am a big twitter fan (where I am @Sarah_E_Milne). So much has happened for me and for the work I do to promote organ donation because of twitter. The Save Jess campaign was born out of twitter and I have met some amazing people by exchanging 'tweets'. One of those people is Sarah Brown, who tweets under the name of @SarahBrown10. I have been privileged enough to receive tweets and messages of support from her on twitter. Last week, I got a message from her asking for my address. A couple of days later I received an invitation to the 'Downing Tweet Christmas Party', a reception in support of the Million Mums Campaign. Before I go on to tell you about what an awesome time I had and all the amazing people I met, I want to take you right back to the very beginning of William's story, in fact Hope and Ellie's story too, the very beginning of my journey into Motherhood.

I have severe asthma. On the whole, this is just a pain. It makes me cough and wheeze when I walk around and can stop me doing some of the things I want to do, some days more than others. When I am pregnant, it becomes much more of an issue and actually made me critically ill and needing intensive care. I was in hospital from 26 weeks with Hope, desperately trying to get her to 32 weeks gestation when it was felt her delivery would be safe for her. I made it to 30 and for 3 days, she and I were in intensive care, our lives in the balance and my poor family not knowing which end of the hospital to be in. Thankfully, we both did amazingly well. This could have been a one off so I ventured into a second pregnancy. With Ellie, I was in hospital a bit earlier and spent time in intensive care before her birth as well as after it. She was smaller and sicker than her sister and had a few more 'premmie issues' to get through. We even had one of those horrible moments, and one I will never forget, when a doctor calls you into a counselling room and utters those sickening words "We are doing everything we can but...." Thankfully, they did everything they could and, by the end of one of the most terrifying days of my life, there was no but. William's conception was not planned but he was very much wanted from the minute I knew he was there. With Wills, I was in hospital from 24 weeks and in and out of intensive care for several long weeks. There was talk of putting me to sleep and ventilating me until he reached a viable age. There were suggestions that I should terminate - suggestions I couldn't hear of. In the end, I used a non-invasive ventilator (NIV) that delivered a full breath as I breathed in and helped me get enough oxygen to support him. On better days I managed with high flow oxygen. Again, he and I were in intensive care for several days after the birth. William needed a lot more support than his sisters as he had 'Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity' and was on oxygen 24 hours a day for the first 15 months of his life. He has continued to need a huge amount of medical, educational and physical support since his birth. Some of these problems are likely to be because of my state in pregnancy and his premature birth, others could have happened anyway.

I, and my three children, are incredibly lucky. We had modern medicine and intensive care units with skilled staff. Without them, I wouldn't be blogging now and there would be no Hope, Ellie or William. Yesterday, I had a long chat with Jo Cox, the Director of the Maternal Mortality Campaign. She told me that 50% of the world's Mums have given birth on the floor, alone. Half of all Mums. That is an incredible statistic. Every minute of every day, a woman is dying in childbirth. 99% of these deaths happen in developing countries and almost all could have been prevented, often by an easy and inexpensive intervention. The Million Mums Campaign is working on changing this. Please visit the site and register your support. If you can, give them just a little money too. If you can afford it, give them more. I work hard to promote organ donation because, without our wonderful donor, William would not be here but, without the care I had and the children had in pregnancy and birth, our story would not have begun at all and that is why I want to do all I can to help the Million Mum's Campaign.

I was going to move on to all the exciting things that happened yesterday but, you know what. I think I'll leave you with these thoughts and come back tomorrow with the story of the reception itself. Before I tell my next story, please go here that site and help women in developing countries to have a story of Motherhood to tell.

Reflection and Celebration

Remember this?

November 20th 2008

Someone told me a couple of weeks ago that we would get our call for William's transplant when we least expected it. Well, yesterday was quite a day!!! I will post properly later with the whole story but for now, the big news is that William is in theatre having his new tummy. He went in at 7am this morning and we are expecting an update at about 12.00pm when they will be half way through the op. I am excited, happy, relieved, worried...and very sad and thankful to the donor family. My thoughts are with them.

Can you believe that was a year ago?? It has been an incredible year. I am feeling very reflective and, I'm sure, will be blogging more about our transplant story over the coming days. It is surprising how much you just deal with on auto pilot at the time you are going through it and it comes back raw some time later. It's a good thing I think. Some things can't be comprehended fully when you're experiencing as thinking about it all too much. You just go on autopilot and get on with the practicalities of the situation. If you have been following this blog, you will remember that we had our ups and downs during William's transplant recovery. I called it a rollercoaster - and it was for 3 months. William was well enough to come home at the end of February and the journey to that day contained a good few times when things were very worrying. Things just took their time with Wills though and since then he has never looked back - 9 months of excellent health, something we could never have dreamed for before his transplant. Here's to many more! We have our donor and her wonderful family to thank for that and we do that very day.

Today, we remembered them by lighting a candle while we shared our thoughts and said a prayer. We were hoping to let of a chinese lantern but it is a tad too wet and windy so we'll do that over Christmas instead. Reflection was an important part of today but so was celebration. Celebration of William's gift and celebration of how far he has come this year. He is now off tube feed in the day and drinking strawberry milkshake instead, supplemented with a tube feed overnight. Today, we celebrated strawberry style with strawberries and strawberry fluff for breakfast and a strawberry birthday cake at home and at school. I gave the children a new breakfast set each so they all have a lovely Cath Kitson cup, bowl, plate and egg cup to commemorate this special milestone. Wills chose a birthday tea at MacDonalds - a happy meal to play with (not quite eating that yet). It has been an amazing day, an emotional day, weird at times but amazing.

Dropping back home out of the whirlwind

Hello...is anyone there? I wouldn't be surprised if not. I am so sorry it has been such a while since I last blogged. I have been incredibly busy and working flat out until the wee small hours every night then crashing. I have been meaning to blog but haven't been able to squeeze it out of myself. Well, today, I have come here before getting stuck into the evening's work.

So, what have I been up to? Before I explain, let's just revisit my first blog of November 2008.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2008

Bugs, bugs and more bugs!

We are not home! William got more bugs in his line so we are here for a while longer. His blood tests are not too stable and he is needing more potassium and is back on TPN for 22 hours a day. We need things to be a bit more stable before we can think of home. The main thing the doctor had to say was that we need his transplant and we need it ASAP!

Things were so unstable for William this time last year. Every day, all I could do was pray that his transplant call would come and, if it didn't, that he would still be there in the morning for me to pray the same again.

We were so, so lucky and William's call came when he was at his very sickest. It really came at the 11th hour. In three weeks, we will be celebrating the huge milestone of reaching a year after transplant. We were told the first 2 years after a small bowel transplant are the most critical and we are almost half-way there. Of course, we will be remembering our wonderful donor and her family who made this possible for us as we give thanks for the William we have today with all his energy and love of life.

We were the lucky ones. Others are not so lucky. If you have been following the gifts of life project, you may remember Oliver. Have a look here if you can't remember. Isn't he the cheekiest chappy? Very sadly, Oliver died 3 weeks ago. His little body just couldn't wait any longer for his new kidney. I got to know Oli and his Mum, Lucy, very well since meeting them in April and often popped into see them when I was near the Evelina Hospital where they had been staying since Oli fell ill the afternoon after the photo shoot. I feel so sad whenever I pass now, knowing Oli isn't there anymore.

You may also remember Jess. Jess is still waiting for her double lung transplant and has been critically ill several times since I last blogged and this is why I haven't blogged. Myself, and many of Jess's friends started posting about Jess on twitter and I had the idea of turning it into a media campaign. I sent an email suggesting this as an idea on Sunday morning, a week after my last blog post here. I had no idea where that mail would lead. If I explained all here you would still be reading at Christmas so, suffice to say, I have been on an incredibly steep learning curve, managing a campaign savejess, doing lots of PR and media work and persuading the likes of Natalie Imbruglia, Ed Byrne and the Yeah You's to play a gig for Jess and to raise awareness of organ donation, oh, and organising said gig in 2 weeks! It has been a whirlwind and I am only just winding down and getting back to normal. It has been exhausting but Jess doesn't have time to wait. Oli was struggling so much and I thought he would just keep on having close shaves but coming out the other side. I just hope Jess gets her call (the right one, she has had 9 calls that didn't result in a transplant, either because the donor lungs were too damaged or because Jess was not well enough.

There is a lot to tell about all this and it has had a huge impact on me and what I am doing now. I am aware I have missed a huge chunk out of the blog. I am now going back over the last few weeks and collating it all so I may well throw in a couple of catch up blogs. I will certainly be blogging about where this all takes me next. At the moment, your guess is as good as mine. For starters, I suggest you get hold of a copy of The Sun tomorrow as they should (and I say should as you never know in media) be running an exciting story about what happened at the 'Save Jess-tival' gig (another reason why I haven't blogged in the last 2 weeks as I had to stop myself blowing the exclusivity).

Meanwhile, the novel is coming along very nicely and I hope to try and get a publisher early in the new year. My other writing is also going well and I have a feature in 'Yours' magazine out next week. Writing is developing faster than photography at the moment. It is nice to have the two things because sometimes the door opens for one and others for the other. I also really enjoyed the PR side of Save Jess-tival and managed to get some great media coverage. This is something else I would like to do more of. As ever, I have lots of ideas and wish there were more hours in the day and days in the week. Some of my ideas are big but, after what has been achieved over the last month, I will no longer think that an idea is too big for me. If you have the passion and the belief that you can do it, you can do it!

I know I keep saying this but I really do promise to blog regularly again now so do get back to the habit of dropping by... I WILL see you soon...

Back to School

Gosh, it has been a long time since I last blogged. So much has happened since that it would be a very long blog indeed if I listed it all and I'm sure I would loose you long before I finished. I am on Facebook (Sarah Milne) and on Twitter as Sarah__Milne (the line is a double underscore) and do 'tweet' several times a day so, if you want to see what is keeping me away from this blog, you can follow me here . Now all three children are back at school, I hope to have time to keep this blog updated more regularly.I have been crazily busy over the last few weeks, perhaps it wasn't my most sensible plan to decide to go self employed and launch a new career in the Summer Holidays, with the children home. I'm not known to be the most sensible about these things though. Getting things started and entertaining William all day was a challenge, but one I think I rose to.

Over the Summer, I have submitted articles to magazines, provided photographs for several charities, a number of events, four local newspapers, national newspapers and magazines. I have also started portrait photo shoots. I will sit down this week and list everything in order to update my CV. It is a good start and I am very happy with how things are going. I have now done enough writing and photography to see where my strenths lie and where I should specialise. After some analysis, thought and some suggestions from those close to me and some of those I have worked with, I will be specialising my feature writing on child health and illness, transplants and organ donation and and family issues around chronically ill and special needs children, although I will write more widely as well. As a photogapher, I will specialise on documentary and public relations, PR, work (which I will approach as a documentary project of a day or event). Work is developing nicely but I do need to work out a marketing strategy to sustain it. I hope to finish a draft of my novel by the end of the year and, of course, have the hospice artist in residence project to plan. There is something else that I will soon be able to tell you about as well :).

There is a lot going on but it does now hinge together.Most of my work is still at home but I am beginning to get out more to meetings and photo shoots. It is lovely to work with people and not have to worry that a meeting will almost certainly have to be cancelled or moved because of a crisis for William. For the last year, I have lived pretty much in jeans and converse boots. This was perfect for hospital and is great for sitting at my desk at home and for informal shoots. Apart from the odd thing I bought for a specific occasion, this is pretty much my wardrobe. Having sorted the children with new uniform for school over the last couple of weeks, Hope and I went into town today to buy a few bits for my new term. I needed some things that can be worn for meetings and more formal photo shoots. While we were out we talked about how things have changed for us as well as William since the transplant. Both of us are feeling more free and self-confident and enjoying being able to make plans. Even short-term plans were impossible to make before William's transplant. We are all enjoying the stability and the security that is enabling us to develop our own lives. William's transplant bought new life for the whole family and we are all making the best of it. September has always been a time of year that energises me. I love the 'back to term' feeling, the new start, clean sheets of paper and new pens. This September is bringing about the biggest and best fresh start of them all

The power of art..

Some samples of my photography. You'll see why they are here as you read on..

I must apologise for the long period of time between this and my last post but you will see why as you read on. I am always pretty busy but have been uber so over the last couple of weeks and it has all been pretty big, life changing stuff.

The title of this blog is 'My Journey with William' yet, regular readers will notice that the 'My' is often somewhat neglected as 'William' takes over my life. He has done. He has dominated it and I don't blame him or the situation nor do I think I could have done anything different over the last few years when he and I spent 80% of our time living in hospital. However, thanks to our wonderful donor and her family. He is home, well and, although he still needs a lot of care, it is care that others can learn to do. So, I have been thinking about my future and how I can use what we have all been through to shape it and how I can use the lessons we have learned the hard way, often too late, to help others cope with similar situations. I have been thinking hard, and praying too, to work out what I can do and, last week, my thoughts and plans came together.

During the months leading up to William's transplant, while we were facing losing him, there were times when life was unbearable. I was trapped in out 'Chelsea Pad' with a poorly and fractious child, often in isolation in a world that I found myself being rapidly absorbed into while losing contact with life outside. The girls were away with Mum and Dad in Stoke-on-Trent. I knew my relationship with Paul was crumbing and all I could find the energy to do was to look after William. I didn't really know what I was thinking and feeling and certainly had no strength to deal with it. Afterall, what did I matter. I just willed myself to get up in the morning and hold the thinning strings that kept our family and our lives together. I have always been a writer and was working on projects in hospital. But then, I discovered photography and, with it, my creativity was re-awakened. Suddenly, I had a means to explore and express the way I felt. I photographed everything, I journalled avidly, I scribbled, I collected pictures from magazines that expressed how life felt and how I wanted it to be. That became my lifeline. I turned our experiences into art and it saved my sanity. Suddenly, within my confines, I had a reason, other than looking after my Son, to get up in the morning. Something that was just for me and I had a means to understand myself.

This continued throughout William's transplant journey and I now have boxes of material from which I am writing stories, poetry and a novel and creating photo books and a small art 'installation'. From that the Gifts of Life project was born. I will be forever committed to using the talents I have been developing in promoting organ donation. I will be continuing with Gifts of Life next year and will be doing other projects to raise organ donation awareness too.

There is something else I want to do. I want others to be able to unlock their own creativity to help them cope with their journeys, particularly other mums of sick and life limited children. So, another very exciting project has now been born. Throughout 2010 I wil be working as an artist in residence at a children's hospice, which I will name when the families have been told in their newsletter in the coming weeks. I will be photographing a year in the life of the hospice and a year in the lives of some of the families during their every day activities. Through this, I will document the challenges these families face; the poverty, the relationship strains, the impact on siblings, the anguish of knowing you will bury your child. I will also document the joys that such a child brings, those special moments when you get a smile or a chuckle from a child who generally has very little obvious interaction with the world. I will write articles, poems and books and, as in Gifts of Life, raise awareness but I will also be doing something to help more directly. My artisit in residence programme will include workshops to help others use art and creativity in their own lives. I am really looking forward to what they come up with. I am so excited about this.

My next job is to find funding for this, although I will do it regardless but it would be nice to do it comfortably. I am hoping to get it from Arts Council funding but am also thinking more creatively too. Any ideas, please do let me know.

In addition, I need to find a way to fund my own family. So, here is where you find out the relevance of the pictures at the top of this entry. This week, I also launched my own potrait photography business. I have a passion for taking images of people and, while I have a drive to document and raise awareness through the medium of photography, I love just capturing people. So, I am hoping I can make a sucess of a business as well to earn the income that is very hard to earn through documentary work.

It is a big leap and a big risk but all of this feels right. It is certainly a new road on my journey and this time it is mine. I had such a good feeling yesterday as I sat back and thought of all I had created and that is what I have done too. No-one handed me these projects, no-one wrote me a job description on how to be an artist in residence and come up with the business. It is all created from scratch by me and I am really proud of it.

The British Transplant Games

We have been very busy since my last post. We had a few more wet but lovely days at Mum and Dad's AKA Grandma and Grandad's and then we were off the the British Translant Games. The games opened on William's 5th birthday, a birthday I am pretty certain we may not have seen were it not for his transplant coming when it did. The games were amazing, emotional, inspiring... I will blog properly about them but it has all be crazy busy since. I took photos and have been writing, hoping to get an article out about the wonderful children in the Birmingham Children's Hospital team who have now won the children's trophy at the games for 14 years in a row! You can see my pictures here I hope they show something about what a fantastic weekend the games are and how much everyone takes from them.

William certainly took a lot from the games, especially seeing other children who have had transplants like him. He loves Aaron and calls him his 'transplant brother'. We are going to participate in the UK Transplant Sports activities as much as possible as we all had a really great time. William enjoyed meeting people but was somewhat reluctant when it came to running. Quickly realising that his physical limitations were going to mean he came last by a long way, he decided to come last in style and go as slowly as he could, much to the amusement of the crowd who had been urged by the announcer to support the youngest competitors. William enjoyed the ball throw more and did very well to come 4th, nearly getting the bronze medal. He did get participators medals in the sportshall for the obstacle course and in the tug of war. He was featured in our local paper, where they made a bit more about the medals that his did get than I just did. You can read the article here accompanied by one of my photos. A few from the games have made it into print which is really exciting. I learned a huge amount form the seasoned pros who were there covering the event and aim to build on this straight away...watch this space.

I am hugely proud of William and of the whole Birmingham team and the fantastic staff that give up their own time to manage them right from the application process through the games themselves. If the games ever come near you, do go along and see it for yourself. It is easy to forget that all those 2000+ adults and children taking part are only alive because of the kindness of their donor families. When you do remember for a second, it is impossible to stop the tears from coming.