I finished my third book More Barsetshire Diary in 2011 and considered a break from writing as my blogging and all the social sites I seemed obliged to visit were taking up so much of my time.
In July my fatherr in law passed away after breaking a hip in a fall and not surviving surgery. My wife was complaining of stomach pains when it happened butt we didn't seem to concentrate on them. Eventually we visited the doctor who prescribed various remedies for indigestion until it was time for tests. Then came the shocker. Julia had pancreaic cancer and it hit her quite hard.
We were lucky that someone suggested Julia for an operation only performed by four surgeons in this country. A splanchnicectomy was performed which cut some nerve endings to control most of her pain. It was like a miracle. Unfortunately the hospital she was in almost killed her with a post op infection by putting her on a ward when she had no immune system. Eventually we overcame it.
The pain under control we went for chemotherapy to shrink the offending tumour. We already knew it couldn't be killed and was inoperable but side effects caught her lungs and the chemo had to stop. That seemed to be the extent of the treatment on offer. But, Julia is a fighetr and has gone from strength to strength fighting . She's badly underweight and I'm trying to tempt her to eat.
One bonus of the operation was the ability to go riding without much pain, and what there was was controlled by drugs. The RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) only has one stables in our area and it's very popular so Ju can go nce a week in term time for three quarters of an hour. Because it's quite a distance away we thought a new RDA stables a bit closer would be ideal and would give a chance to many more disabled people to ride who may not otherwise get a chance. Maybe some new stars for the Paralympics in 2016?
In order to do this we had to find somewhere suitable. This we did when we found a place called Pennant Park and we are now trying to raise enough funding to have a permanent structure built over the arena and get an electric hoist to lift the disabled to horse height. Those who are interested can follow most of the story on my blog http://barsetshirediaries.wordpress,com which is where the latest piece is to bring you up to date.
Anyone wishing to contribute to this can do so via paypal to mikproju.talktalk.net marked Pennant Park please.
19 Nov 2013.
Julia passed away on 30th March this year and is sadly missed.
Pennant Park now has it's enclosed arena and the owners, Carl and Storm placed a placque to Julia inside.
David.
