In May 1994
Prime Minister John Major went on record saying SWEEP THE BEGGARS OFF THE
STREET claiming that begging was offensive and should be driven from
the streets. Urging people to report beggars to the police, Mr Major
said the benefits system made it unnecessary for people to resort to begging
and there was no excuse for it. It was an eyesore, he said. I wonder if
the attitude deep down of a politician today has changed. While nobody is going to speak the way Prime
Minister Major did an understanding that there is more to solving
rough-sleeping than putting a roof over someone’s head is as void now as it was
twenty-six years ago.
Two weeks today my book Milton Dreams The City That Never Was will be published. Within it there is a chapter MILTON KEYNES - THE CIT OF LOVE. On Thursday I will be playing two hours of music on the radio trying to inspire love.
2020 The Year That Never was ! The year 2020 where Summer went straight into Winter bypassing Autumn. I have been in a very small way been supporting a pavement buddy outside Morrissons, Westcroft. I went to some shopping on Saturday and there he was in the wind, the rain and the cold, there he was huddled up in his sleeping bag.
Milton Keynes The City Of Dreams - who is kidding who ?
Schools go back on Wednesday. I will be playing two hours of music for our amazing schools at this difficult time.
I sent an e-mail to every single member of Milton Keynes Council asking for support at this difficult times. Support for our teachers, their schools and students.
How many councillors do you think replied ? How many added their support ?
ZERO
Not a single one ! Not a single councillor showed that they cared !
Milton Keynes The City Of Love ?????????????????????????????????
The spirit of John major is alive and well !
Saint Giles Church, Tattenhoe, right at the start of the pandemic invited people to tie a ribbon to its fence, a ribbon of hope for someone special. Mine was one of the first tied to the fence.
Now this IS Milton Keynes - The City Of Love.
I will be opening the show with this beautiful place and will be trying to inspire more places to follow the example of Saint Giles Tattenhoe.
SWEEP THE BEGGARS OFF THE STREET - that will not turn Milton Keynes into The City
Of Love !
Perhaps if we swept up the heartless Milton Keynes Council members we could indeed achieve a city of love.
Under pressure ? Freddie Mercury, mate - you don't know that half of it ! A pressure shared is a pressure halved.... Isn't that what they say ? OK let me try to halve my pressure. Will you help ?
Since the start of the year I have added SIX books to my Amazon Bookshelf. With little else to do in 2020 The Year That Never Was I have been writing an average of 2,500 words a day.
A lot of fun writing those six books and no pressure.
HERE IS THE PRESSURE.
In 1994 I published a paperback NOT THE CONCRETE COWS which was a kaleidoscope through the New City of Milton Keynes. It was a compilation of various newspaper and magazine articles I had written in the early 1990's. For a while I have wanted to write a follow up, lock down and little of my "normal" life happening I set about writing.
The book is called MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS. This time I kaleidoscope through middle- age Milton Keynes. Although we never did become a city - we are just The Borough of Milton Keynes, in the book I try to fire a dream that one day we will be given city status.
I am going to publish this book on Monday 14th September 2020 - that is 28 years since my very first book was published.
The text is finished (I think) and runs to 65,874 words. I have not presented it to Amazon yet for their approval as I keep adding in new little bits and pieces.
I have not yet dedicated the book to anyone and was thinking I probably would not. However, I am toying with the idea of dedicating it to Sir Harold Wilson 1916 - 1995. It was Harold Wilson's government that designated an area of land in North
Buckinghamshire to build a new city - The New City of Milton Keynes. Harold Wilson also co-founded The Open University in Milton Keynes.
I could just make the dedication but I feel it would be a matter of courtesy to tell his family what I am doing. His son Robin is actually a professor at The Open University. Destiny ? The Open University, of course, features in the book.
What should I do ?
Not The Concrete Cows has been out of print for many years. It felt like a good idea to republish its 45,485 words on the same day as its squeal - Monday 14th September.
When I originally presented the text for publication I wrote it using an early word processor. Now I have a system on my laptop where I simply read the book aloud and the laptop, employing some crappy Microsoft programme, types up the words.
In true Microsoft fashion it imports three typo's for every two words ! It is a nightmare going through it all and undoing Microsoft's deliberate mistakes. Yesterday I found that instead of INSPIRATIONAL Bill Gates had typed SEXUAL ! Is that why Microsoft only employs Dick Heads !
On Monday I am going to speak with someone who I want to dedicate the re-publishing of Not The Concrete Cows to. Someone I have know for 39 years and who did something a bit special when the original book was published.
Putting two books on my Amazon Bookshelf is fair enough but to add a third on Monday 14th September - BONKERS ! Particularly as I have not yet finished writing it !
I have so far written 46,830 words and think I need another eight thousand words to finish it. I am writing every day but am under pressure.
This book does have its dedication, I began writing it for a good friend - Mrs Josh (aka Jelena Morgan) who I know will enjoy it. Who knows, her husband may even read it !
The story is set in 2017 where Philip Johnson is a disaffected and under-achieving fifteen year old. His grandfather was Trickie Dickie And The Diamonds, a great British Rock and Roll Star of whom it is said if it was not for The Beatles would have been bigger than Elvis Presley.
Granddad and Elvis Presley are working through a plan, a plan to turn Philip into Pip Diamond The Prince of Rock and Roll. The fifteen year old embarks upon a series of time travel adventures as the plot is outworked. Those around him completely transform in a very short time the world's music industry. That is the plan in which Pip is actually a pawn.
I am about to loop-de-loop the story to reveal exactly what the plan is and whose plan it is.
Getting the text ready and publishing all three works on Monday 14th September will be done. I will be happier when all is completed and submitted to Amazon but that is not the pressure.
Normally I write for myself, for pleasure, I am not bothered if I sell books or not. For these three it is different. I want MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS to become a best seller and help outwork the dream. I am broadcasting music, contacting many people seeking help with promotion and
This week I am broadcasting two hours of music under the title - MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LOVE.
I have more:
EDUCATION A GIFT FOR LIFE
WARTIME MILTON KEYNES
LEGENDS OF MILTON KEYNES
MUSIC FROM THE CONCRETE COWS
PIP'S DISCO
and more.........
The pressure is to get people to read the books once they are published. Within Milton Dreams there is a chapter - WHAT IF, in which I explain what I will do with the royalties from one, two and even three best sellers.
Let me share the last few sentences from that chapter.
If my income were to suddenly leap from where
it is right now each month to more than three quarters of a million pounds what
would I do ? How would I cope ?
Simple, I would give most of the money away. I
would give it to good causes within Milton Keynes that are close to my heart.
That would mean supporting the most vulnerable and down in their luck people
within Milton Keynes.
In the chapter Iconic Music I have a number of
the icons who have given me autographed bits and pieces. These will be put into
a silent on-line auction to benefit a Milton Keynes charity. Throughout the
period of the auction royalties from every copy of Milton Dreams will also be
given to that good cause.
I love people and have a passion to support
all who need supporting but what is the point of caring for people while we are
all working like crazy to destroy the planet we ALL live on ? The word ALL
includes ALL life forms. Why should mankind be allowed to destroy the
home of ALL other species ? I would certainly want to throw the financial
success of my book and any book I write behind biodiversity and green issues.
If I ever do become an Amazon millionaire
please do not expect to find me alongside James Bond buying a new car from a
certain Newport Pagnell car maker. However, you will find me bidding to take
over certain Central Milton Keynes architectural eyesores then dynamiting them
to the ground ! Dynamiting them to the
ground before planting trees in their place.
This is something I will be sending to staff in the Milton Keynes Schools I attended with Worktree prior to lock down and the present situation
IF YOU CAN READ THIS THEN THANK A TEACHER
In 1993 I published a book NOT THE CONCRETE COWS which was a compilation of features I had written in the local press and one or two national magazines, all about the adolescent New City of Milton Keynes. Among these was something on the history of education in MK - IF YOU CAN READ THIS THEN THANK A TEACHER.
On Monday 14th September I am publishing a follow up book - MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS. Here I take my readers on a kaleidoscope journey through present-day Milton Keynes and try to fire up a dream that we will indeed be granted a city charter to truly become The City of Milton Keynes. Within this book there is a chapter entitled EDUCATION A GIFT FOR LIFE.
A while ago we were all encouraged to clap for our NHS. I am not going to say that we should start clapping for our teachers, the entire Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on full volume could not make enough sound to applaud our schools !
Schools go back on Wednesday 2nd September. Headteachers and their staff must be dizzy beyond measure reacting to the shambolic twists and turns of our government ! First thing on Wednesday (6am to 8am) I am dedicating my radio show to our amazing schools. I have a mixture of fun and moving music - from Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall to a silly six times table song. I plan to talk about some special moments I had with Worktree in our amazing, wonderful schools.
There was the young man at OAKGROVE SCHOOL who asked me if I had ever heard of The Bee Gees as he was a great fan of their music. Have I ever heard of The Bee Gees ? I will be playing a track for him on Wednesday.
Another student at OAKGROVE asked me what my favourite song was. Without hesitation I replied Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. Immediately he started quoting its powerful words. That was released in 1970, FIFTY years before we were talking.
In OUSEDALE SCHOOL - Olney a lovely lady was telling me how she had seen the homeless rough-sleepers in Central Milton Keynes. That coming Saturday she and some of her friends were going to The Centre MK to buy blankets which they would then give to the homeless. It brought tears to my eyes and there are tears in my eyes now as I write this.
On another occasion I said to a group of lads that I had never spoken to a homeless rough-sleeper who was not kind, polite and friendly towards me. One replied saying that unlike you and me a rough-sleeper does not need to put up a wall of pretence as he speaks, he has nothing in life so naturally the real person comes out when he speaks. How profound.
Do any of you remember THE RADCLIFFE ROLLERS ? The amazing steel band from Radcliffe School in Wolverton ? In the 1980's they were a Milton Keynes musical sensation. How the band never achieved national and international fame I never will know. I attended a Worktree session at RADCLIFFE SCHOOL which was run by the sixth form. What an amazing bunch of young people !
Now here is something extra special. I sent an e-mail to Paula, the Head of Radcliffe, applauding her sixth form. That was on a Friday evening. She replied first thing on Saturday morning. Please do not tell me that teachers work 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday !
When I made my first Worktree visit to a school I thought it was my job to inspire the teenagers. I was wrong ! At every session in every school they inspired me. I can not wait for the pandemic to be over and to return to Worktree and our schools.
On Wednesday 2nd September I want the music I play on my radio show to inspire people to applaud our amazing, incredible, fantastic schools.
Within my new book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS there is a big chapter telling of the history of education in Milton Keynes, it goes way back to the thirteenth century. There is also a chapter speaking of life in Milton Keynes during the war years. This is more than Bletchley Park, the work done by the schools of the day was an inspiration to all. I will be playing music and telling my listeners about these two chapters on Tuesday 15th September, the day after publication.
Milton Dreams The City That Never Was - published in 2020
I want to write a trilogy, I want to write Milton Keynes The City That Truly Is !
I want OUR dream to come true. When it does it will be the present generation of teenagers who will make the dream come true. They will make it come true only because they are right now attending our AMAZING - INCREDIBLE - FANTASTIC - INSPIRATIONAL schools.
If you can read this then thank a teacher.
THANK YOU
David Ashford - Writing under the pen-name of Max Robinson
As I head towards the publication date for MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS on Monday 14th September I am preparing some musical collections for different chapters. Today I broadcast two hours of iconic music from MK.
Milton Dreams will be my 22nd book on my Amazon bookshelf.
MILTON KEYNES THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS ? On 1st January 1967 Harold Wilson's government announced that an area of land in North Buckinghamshire was designated for
the building of a new city. The city was built but was never awarded a city charter so we are just The Borough of Milton Keynes. As I take my readers on a kaleidoscope through our now 53 year old Milton Keynes I want to inspire everyone to catch the dream and work to make Milton Keynes - The City That Truly Is.
I am working to publish my THREE books on Monday 14th September but there may be a problem. WHAT IF I BECOME A MILLIONAIRE ?
MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS is now completed, the text checked and rechecked. Total of 65,690 words. I have just purchased miltondreams.com as the domain name to promote the book. I am am hoping it will perhaps sell ten thousand copies.
I will be republishing Not The Concrete Cows on the same day. I have now completed the typing of the text which comes to 45,429 words. All I have to do is now to read it through and eliminate the typo's.
A third book from the pen of Max Robinson on 14th September will be my Pip Diamond story - GETTING TO KNOW MY GRANDDAD. So far 45,500 words written there. Another 10,000 to finish my tale.
What if one or more become best sellers ? What if I become a millionaire ? I have added a chapter to MILTON DREAMS THE SITUATION THAT NEVER WAS explaining how I plan to cope.
What If:
What if this book Milton Dreams The City That
Never Was becomes a best seller ?
Not the Concrete Cows sold, I think, five
thousand copies. I am secretly hoping this sequel will sell ten thousand
copies. That could be a bit ambitious as a target. With a population of around
a quarter of a million in Milton Keynes I would need one in twenty-five residents,
from the nursery to the care homes, to buy copies. That is not going to happen
!
But I so much want our dream to come true, I
so much want to write another book, Milton Keynes the City That Truly Is. I am
planning to publish that in 1st April 2046 by which time I will be
ninety-six years of age ! It would suit
my purpose if I could write it ahead of that date !
Usually I write for fun and for my own
enjoyment, I do not care how many people part with their hard-earned money to
read my scribble. This book, however, is different and I will be very working
hard to promote sales.
Yes, of course, I will earn royalties for
every copy of Milton Dreams sold but that is not what it is all about. How can
you put a price on a dream ?
As an Amazon writer I am automatically entered
every month into a bonus scheme where the twenty-five best selling UK authors
each month receive $1,000,000 – that is £763,485 ! Presumably, an author who is in the best
sellers list in any given month was also a best seller the month before and will
be the month after. Winning one million dollars is not going to bejust a monthly one off.
If my income were to suddenly leap from where
it is right now each month to more than three quarters of a million pounds what
would I do ? How would I cope ?
Simple, I would give most of the money away. I
would give it to good causes within Milton Keynes that are close to my heart.
That would mean supporting the most vulnerable and down in their luck people
within Milton Keynes.
In the chapter Iconic Music I have a number of
the icons who have given me autographed bits and pieces. These will be put into
a silent on-line auction to benefit a Milton Keynes charity. Throughout the
period of the auction royalties from every copy of Milton Dreams will also be
given to that good cause.
I love people and have a passion to support
all who need supporting but what is the point of caring for people while we are
all working like crazy to destroy the planet we ALL live on ? The word ALL
includes ALL life forms. Why should mankind be allowed to destroy the
home of ALL other species ? I would certainly want to throw the financial success
of my book and any book I write behind biodiversity and green issues.
If I ever do become an Amazon millionaire
please do not expect to find me alongside James Bond buying a new car from a
certain Newport Pagnell car maker. However, you will find me bidding to take
over certain Central Milton Keynes architectural eyesores then dynamiting them
to the ground ! Dynamiting them to the
ground before planting trees in their place.
Supposedly I have finished writing my book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS...
BUT yesterday I added FOUR more chapters. Can I share two of them with you ?
FIRSTLY....
THE MILTON KEYNES WALK OF FAME
I once suggested to a couple of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Council Members
that there should be a Milton Keynes Walk Of Fame and that it should be located
outside Jim Marshall’s former music shop in Queensway, Bletchley. They liked
the idea but, like me, knew it was never going to happen. WHY NOT ?
Jim Marshall is Milton Keynes
representative on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame. His star is there along with
2.689 others stretching for a mile and a quarter along Hollywood Boulevard. The
very first star was set down in 1955 with John Wayne’s name upon it.
As I hope I have explained in
this book, the history and culture of Milton Keynes is widely diverse and
reaches far, far back into history. I am not suggesting that we should have
ancient names like Queen Boudica on our walk of fame but start on 1st
January 1967. Why this date ?It was on
this day that Harold Wilson’s government announced an area of land in North
Buckinghamshire was to be designated for the construction of a new city – The New
City Of Milton Keynes !
The Hollywood Walk Of Fame was
part of a regeneration project for a rundown area of Los Angeles. I would not
exactly call Bletchley’s Queensway rundown but it is hardly a sparkling jewel
is it ? It isn’t just the physical stars but the aura and magic the stars put
out which is important. I have been to Los Angeles, I have been to The
Hollywood Walk Of Fame but I was just a tourist there with many thousand like
me. I am not sure that Queensway, Bletchley could cope with thousands of
tourists but it could cope with – Milton Keynes could cope with celebration of
individuals our walk of fame would generate. It would be an inspiration to future
generations and citizens of Milton Keynes.
Ley Lines. We have the
original three Ley Lines of Silbury Boulevard, Midsummer Boulevard and Avebury
Boulevard around which the entire new city was built. We have the ley line of
love upon which Milton Keynes Crematorium is built, it is hard to thing how a
more beautiful and loving location could be conceived for families in their
times of grief. The Milton Keynes Walk Of Fame would too become a ley line.
How many other cities up and
down the country have their walks of fame ?None spring to my mind. Let’s make The Milton Keynes Walk Of Fame happen,
something to help make our dream come true – MILTON KEYNES THE CITY THAT TRULY
IS.
And now.....
RECYCLE MK
When The
Centre MK opened the management released a 7” vinyl single: You’ve Never Seen
Anything Like it – Central Milton Keynes. I am listening to it now as I write
this chapter.SHOPPING AS IT SHOULD BE.
Sadly, a tear is in my eye as I write. Please help me change that from a tear of sadness to a tear of joy.
The song
flopped, I don’t think it even made it into the top one thousand ! However,
every word and every note in the song perfectly describes what was then the
biggest indoor shopping centre in Europe. Central Milton Keynes – Shopping as
it should be. Coaches came from far and wide bringing people to experience The
Centre MK – Shopping as it should be.
It must be
ten years now since I shopped at the Centre MK and I have no plans to shop
there within the next one hundred and ten years. Shopping as it never should be.
Milton Keynes
Council claims it wants to be the greenest local authority in the world by
2050. The Centre MK is probably now the biggest climate cowboy in all of Milton
Keynes. While I would never shop there any longer I do pass it on my way each
morning to the studio of Radio CRMK. That is at stupid o’clock in the morning,
hours before any shops are going to open and yet the entire centre is a blaze
of lights. At any time of the day this probably has the biggest climate
footprint of anywhere in Milton Keynes. Overnight Central Milton Keynes is
probably wasting more electricity than all the rest of the borough put
together, within this The Centre MK is beyond doubt the number one offender.
That alone, for me and I hope for everyone, is reason enough not to shop at The
Centre MK.
People’s
shopping habits have changed, sadly the Centre MK has failed to keep up with
these changes.
The Bin Men,
our refuge collection operatives, are the hardest working people anywhere in
Milton Keynes. Next time you see one of their green and white iconic trucks at
work stop and watch the orange coated bin men who run from home to home,
enthusiastically doing their job. If every person in Milton Keynes worked half
as hard as our bin men we would be living in Utopia.
There are two
bin sacks our refuse collection operatives throw like Olympic athletes into
their trucks, black sacks with rubbish inside and clear plastic sacks
supposedly containing material that is to be recycled. Supposedly. Milton
Keynes Council’s recycling system is so confusing many, if not a majority, of
those clear plastic recycling sacks have items within them that can not be
recycled. Some of those items will be contaminating that which could have been
recycled meaning it will now have to follow the route of the black sacks.
NO ! NO ! NO
! It is NOT Milton Keynes Council’s
recycling system which is at fault. NO IT IS NOT SO DO NOT BLAME THE COUNCIL ! Blame the government if you like. With any
failure that is where the buck stops. The system is broken.
I try so hard
to make my own home a beacon of success when it comes to recycling but I
honestly do not have a clue what can and can not be recycled. I am attacking The Centre MK for being a
climate cowboy but as I put the sacks outside my home each week on Bin Bag Thursday
I am every bit as big an offender. We need a very firm policy where in big
letters on every product you can but from anywhere, including the Centre MK, a
choice of two phrases:
ALL PACKAGING
AROUND THIS ITEM CAN BE RECYCLED – BUY ME
THE PACKAGING
HERE CAN NOT BE RECYCLED – DO NOT BUY IT
We could then
move to a retailing policy of if it can not be recycled then you can not sell
it !
That really
would be shopping as it should be.
You’ve never seen anywhere like it – Central Milton
Keynes
There’s never been anywhere like it – Central Milton
Keynes
You’ve never seen shopping as it should be until you’ve
been to Central Milton Keynes
There’s never been anywhere like it – Central Milton
Keynes
You’ve never seen anywhere like it – Central Milton
Keynes
You’ve never been shopping as it should be until you’ve
been to Central Milton Keynes
CMK – wouldn’t mind shopping all day
Big shops – small shops – no traffic in the way
Sunny CMK – wouldn’t mind staying all day
As soon as you see it you’ll like it – Central Milton Keynes
You’ll find everything inside it –
Central Milton Keynes
You’ve never been shopping as it
should be until you’ve been to Central Milton Keynes Central Milton Keynes –
shopping as it should be
The Centre
MK, you were once the nation’s number one shopping location. What are you now
? A has been which thinks if it keeps
its lights shining all night the astronauts on the International Space Station
may spot you and drop by on their return to Earth !
Turn your
nocturnal illuminations off. Adopt a policy of IF YOU CAN NOT RECYCLE IT THEN
YOU CAN NOT SELL IT. Recycle yourself, re-release your fab little song and return
to SHOPPING AS IT SHOULD BE.
On Monday 14th September I will be republishing my book NOT THE CONCRETE COWS which was originally published in 1993. Here is something from the book. Lady with a special mission:
My own daughter has suffered
from renal failure since she was three years old and so my interest in the
donor card programme is deeply persona. After a third attempt at a kidney
transplant in London’s Guys Hospital I was offered an interview with Mrs
Elizabeth Ward, president of the British Kidney Patients Association, in order
to prepare a feature for national magazine.
By her own admission Mrs Ward
is a formidable lady and so I have to admit to a certain sense of apprehension
as I prepared for our meeting. When the brief meeting was over my whole being
resounded with shell shock- rather than my interviewing her Mrs Ward had
clearly interviewed me and I'm not sure if I passed the test ! However, it was that strong personality which
was directly responsible for the introduction of our familiar donor card.
Outwardly Nigel and Elizabeth
Ward have everything in the world: a lovely house overlooking rolling
countryside, a successful business, holidays abroad and a full social life and
three three wonderful children. It was as their son Timothy, affectionately
known as Timbo, was about to enter Harrow School that the family had to cope
with the devastating news that he was suffering from a life threatening kidney
disorder.
As one who's had to accept the
same reality, I can empathise with Timbo's parents but in 1994 medical science
has come a very long way from when the Ward Family had to cope with the
situation. Then funding for renal dialysis provided but a few machines and organ
transplantation was in its infancy. It looked as if Timbo did not have a very
long life ahead of him.
Timbo attended school with the
son of Sir Keith Joseph, then Minister of Health. When Elizabeth was sent a
kidney donor card in use in the United States she began campaigning for a
similar system to be introduced in Great Britain. She wrote many times to Sir Keith,
at first suggesting, that urging and finally bullying him towards the introduction
of a kidney donor card.
The first renal transplants had
been performed in Boston, Massachusetts, as far back as 1954. Ten years later
the first operation was attempted in this country. But without a supply of
organs there was little future in transplant surgery.
In 1967 world attention
unfortunately focused on South Africa where Christian Barnard performed the
first human heart transplant on a 54 year old patient. The surrounding media
circus, failure rate and questioning of the ethics involved in such programmes
did little to prepare public opinion for transplant donor card.
There were those who found the
idea of spare part surgery repulsive, almost akin to cannibalism, while others
feared the removal of organs before the donor was honestly dead. Ignorance and
prejudice ruled over medical science.
Eventually Sir Keith Joseph
agreed to discuss Mrs Ward’s proposals and a card based on her own design was
launched in 1971 as the kidney donor card. I remember the one I carried from
the early 1970s, I must still have it somewhere, having to ask my father, as
next of kin, to sign his agreement on it. Like many relatives of the time he
was reluctant to agree. For others the reluctance became outright refusal.
A change of government saw
Barbara Castle and Doctor David Owen at the Department of Health. The
redoubtable Mrs Ward confronted them and the realisation that her husband could
refuse legal permission for her to become a donor appalled Mrs Castle
suffragette instincts. She demanded the condition be removed.
The next twenty years saw not
only transplants being accepted as by far the best treatment for chronic renal
failure but also the successful grafting of hearts, liver, cornea and more
recently the spleen. To meet the widening of science health minister Doctor
Gerard Vaugn oversaw the kidney donor card’s transformation into the organ
donor card.
But this was a change the campaigning
Mrs Ward did not exactly welcome. “The indelicate wording of the card makes it
look like a butcher shopping list !” She complained to me in the sitting room of her Surrey home and the headquarters of the British Kidney Patients
Association. And the widening of the scope most certainly denies in many cases
the use of donor kidneys.”
Unlike the heart and liver the
kidney is a resilient organ, it can survive for several hours outside the body
and can be removed quite successfully for transplant after the heart has
stopped beating. Mrs Ward went on to explain but this enabled relatives to
serve proper and dignified goodbye to their loved ones whereas now donors
bodies have to be clinically kept alive on a machine while the brain is dead
and the soul departed.
Consistent high profile over
more than two decades has kept the card ever in the public eye but, in spite of
more than 60% of the populations supporting the programme, only a fraction of this number actually carry
one. The government’s multi million-pound advertising campaign of 1993 did
absolutely nothing to increase the numbers carrying the donor card.
Even though an individual may
carry a card and fully desire to help others after his death by offering organs
for transplant, their wishes may not be complied with. Doctors faced with the
difficult task of breaking the news to the next of kin that their loved one is
dead often elect to avoid compounding matters by seeking permission to take
organs. Strictly speaking this permission is not required by law but doctors
simply will not proceed without it.
Professor Cyril Chantler of Guys
Hospital, possibly the leading paediatric renal specialist in the country,
explains: “… it doesn't seem to work very well and I am now personally
convinced that we should have an opt out system. In other words it should be
the convention, it should be the normal practise that after somebody has been
pronounced dead their kidneys can be used for others unless they have said they
do not wish it to happen.”
A Gallup Poll commissioned by
the British Kidney Patients Association shows 61% of the population firmly in
favour of such a system.
An opt out system already
exists in Belgium, Austria, Finland, France, Norway and Singapore. There was an
increase of 119% in the number of transplants carried out in Belgium during the
first year of the change.
For the kidney patient,
dialysis means being connected to a machine for three or more hours up to four
times a week and the almost impossibility of leaving a normal life. Professor Chantler
is quite clear, “To me the only satisfactory final treatment for somebody with
serious kidney disease is a kidney transplant, only kidney transplants will
restore normal life. Only a kidney transplant will restore normal life.”
Over five thousand patients
are currently on call for an organ transplant but last year only 2,730 of which
1765 were kidneys, transplant operations were performed. Many of those still
waiting will die before a donor is found. It is true that even with a
transplant some of them may still die but without the opportunity of a
transplant they are not even given a chance.
Mrs Ward son Timbo died
undergoing surgery in 1989 but call it destiny, call it divine intent, his life
was not without purpose. A devout christian, his mother, believes he was sent to
spur action towards have done the card and the Formation of a National
Association to promote the cause of kidney patience.
Although Mrs Ward now thinks
the donor card is moving towards becoming a failure I feel she is perhaps a
little too hard on the development of her own idea. While it may have many
failings, from the point of view of the 2730 patients who did receive a
transplant in last year alone it has been a miracle.
But what are the future ? Mrs
Ward is now campaigning furiously for the opt out system
advocated by Professor
Chantler and the government is taking a serious view of the proposals. However,
without the full support of the medical profession, in particular the
transplant surgeons, a change is not likely for a while yet, perhaps not for
another generation.
Until that time it is vital we
all give careful consideration to carried at all times a donor card. Do you
have one ? Have you told your relatives about your wishes ?
Sitting at her hospital
bedside my daughter turned to me and said; “Look Dad I have a donor card. I've crossed
out kidneys, they would not be much use to anyone but they can have everything
else !”
It brought a tear to my eye.
Having been given back to us by the miracle of a transplant the idea of losing
her in some tragic accident is unthinkable. But if it should be that I would
have no hesitation at all in seeing her wishes were carried out.
You can pick up a donor card
from your doctor's surgery, your local chemist shop or write to either myself
or Mrs Ward and we will gladly send you one.
In May 1994
Prime Minister John Major went on record saying SWEEP THE BEGGARS OFF THE
STREET claiming that begging was offensive and should be driven from
the streets. Urging people to report beggars to the police, Mr Major
said the benefits system made it unnecessary for people to resort to begging
and there was no excuse for it. It was an eyesore, he said. I wonder if
the attitude deep down of a politician today has changed. While nobody is going to speak the way Prime
Minister Major did an understanding that there is more to solving
rough-sleeping than putting a roof over someone’s head is as void now as it was
twenty-six years ago.
Milton Keynes The City Of Dreams - who is kidding who ?
The spirit of John major is alive and well !
