I love life

here I am, sat in my lounge in Fareham. My cat, Edith, is to the left of me and my Nat to the right of me. I feel alleviated.
Having left the BoardFree team this morning and leaving my responsibilities to Becki, I’ve got a twinge of guilt in my tummy.
Everyone came to the campsite a few days ago for a team weekend. It was great to see everyone. Especially after the long drought of people over the past 3 weeks.
For lunch we stopped for a brief break and a people carried pulled up alongside me…it didn’t register who it was at first, then it clicked. This was Anne. Her son has Lowes syndrome and they were meeting up with us to show their support. Out jumped Anne, her husband, two girls and they proceeded to get Connor awake and out of the car. Poor lad. He’d been having a good ol’ kip! Apparently he hadn’t had a good morning. When someone usually says they haven’t had a good morning they usually mean they’ve missed a train, their hair hasn’t gone right or they’ve torn a hole in their trousers…but when a Lowes syndrome child hasn’t had a good morning it’s not that straight forward.
It hit home. Meeting Connor, seeing how his parents deal with it, seeing this 17 year old lad in his wheel chair made it truly hit home. I patted Dave on the back and told him ‘ this is what it’s all about ‘.
Apparently there are only 30 Lowes syndrome children in the Uk…thus non government funding for the charity. Harsh.
Having been in a similar situation to the parents. Having watched someone who you’ve either given birth to or has given birth to you, deteriorate slowly before your eyes and not being able to do much about it other that give them the fullest life you can possibly give them hurts. More than you could ever imagine. And this is why we’re doing BoardFree, to give people extra time, extra love, extra abilities. Extra anything is better than nothing. Myself, Kate and Becki were close to tears the entire time. It was really humbling being there. We had to go outside for a quick snivel. I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do but we did it. It didn’t make the pain that was so visible go away, it didn’t make us feel better, it didn’t get it out of our system. All the cry did, was make us feel lucky. We’re so lucky to be alive and to have the life that we do. To help other people is an incredible bonus. If everyone helped just one person, this world would be an exceptional place to be…..VOTE ME FOR PRIMINISTER ANYONE???
A defensive mechanism of mine for when I feel upset/vulnerable is to make a little joke at the end of something, so forgive me for any inappropriate puns!
It was so good for Dave to actually see the support infront of his eyes. He had been low. We all had. It rained lots, his foot was seriously manky and it was hard work.
We finished for the day and headed to the camp site that we were all booked in at.
We were greeted by the team and a black lab puppy called Max! Such a cutie!
Dave got a chance to let his hair down and have a kick around of a football…finally! He’d been waiting to do this for months! Rae and Becki’s parents set about BBQing. A few of us went and had showers then had a seat at the benches and scoffed excellent food. A few Smirnoff ice’s later I headed to bed, being a boring muppet and all that. I was whacked. So emotionally drained at this point. I was ready for Nat to take me away from it all for a few days. The day after, I was leaving to go home and do chores/errands/bill paying…the usual! I’m so thankful to Becki who took over for the last week. She’ll never know how much it meant.
I am a little angry at myself that I didn’t see it through but you know when you just know it’s time to go?
The amount of support that not only myself has received but the team is immense. It keeps us going. Keeps us trekking.

Thankyou,
Everyone,
Thankyou so much.