Pride of Britain by Jeff Hudson

Author:Jeff Hudson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753516140
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

CHAPTER 10

Tell Daddy I Love Him

KIRSTEEN: I DO have many happy memories from Great Ormond Street, but one of my earliest is less happy. I remember sitting in a room crying. When you’re six years old, being told that you have to wait another year for anything seems like a lifetime. But when you’re waiting for an operation that could change your life, it’s unbearable. Even after the operation I knew that I would still have to catheterise for the rest of my life – but at least I would be out of nappies. My stoma wouldn’t leak, I wouldn’t hurt – and I wouldn’t be a laughing stock at school.

‘They’re never going to fix me,’ I sobbed.

‘Of course they are,’ Mum said. ‘Mr Ransley’s just very busy at the minute. He’s got lots of other little boys and girls to see to first.’

Realising that I wasn’t alone with my condition actually helped me. Since our holiday in Mull when I was young, Jane Wallace had stayed in touch with Mum and Dad – and their daughter Inya had become a really good friend of mine. Even though she was ten years older, we have this thing in common which nobody else can really relate to. She’d called me just before I went down to Great Ormond Street to wish me good luck, which I really appreciated.

While I was down in London I got the opportunity to help someone else.

Mum and Dad knew lots of people through the BEES support network. Our visit to London coincided with another family’s operation date. Their little girl was younger than I was, and at first I was jealous that she was being seen to so much earlier than me, but I soon pushed that out of my head.

‘Their little girl’s very scared,’ Mum said. ‘She doesn’t like the idea of being operated on.’

‘Maybe I should talk to her?’ I suggested.

‘I think she’d really like that.’

As soon as I was able to walk after Mr Ransley’s exploratory op, we all went to the Louise Ward where my parents’ friends were with their daughter. When we arrived, the girl was reading a book with pink fairy stickers in it. She was smaller than me and she looked so frightened. I told her there was nothing to worry about.

‘I’ve had eight operations,’ I said. ‘You don’t even know they’re happening, and then you wake up and it’s all over.’

The little girl couldn’t believe I’d had so many.

‘Will I have to have eight operations?’ she asked.

I explained that I had been unlucky. ‘I think you’ll only need one,’ I said. ‘And this time next year I’m going to have the same one.’

Before we left, I asked where her book had come from and she told me she thought her mum had bought it in the hospital shop.

It was time for us to leave. We went back down to our room to collect our things, and, as soon as we were on our own again, I became upset. Why didn’t we come here when I was small? I wondered.

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