Hello! and welcome to my regular series, Marvellous Mondays. Here I will be publishing positive stories from other people, including my fellow Bloggers. These posts will be positive posts to remind us all on those hard and tiring days that it CAN be better. To give a little insight into other families and what they've achieved, any milestones they have reached with their children or anything that has made them happy that day.
- The next one I absolutely love – Yvonne has spent many years frightened and anxious about the inevitability of her son having to live in a care home, After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis the decision of when (not if) was taken away from her and she now knows that there are some wonderful places and some amazing people out there who can provide our young adult children with meaningful and happy lives and experiences. Meet Elena, the Asst Manager where Toby lives, and just look at how her eyes shine with love when she talks about him, who she also describes as "a dream service user".
- In this next video Yvonne is promoting the brand new blogging awards for SEND Bloggers, of which she is a judge for. The nominations are re - opening again tomorrow for the next round. This is what its all about.
It all started
off a bit James Bondish.
I had a random tweet out of the blue asking that I
follow them back, followed by a direct message suggesting we spoke on the phone,
and by the time the phone call happened, all of about 8 minutes after that
first random tweet, my wind-up radar was fully switched on and I thought it
must be someone playing a rather elaborate good-humoured hoax on me.
After all, how
often do you get the NHS going to such lengths to get hold of you urgently, and
then inviting you to take over their Twitter Account – yes the one with the
twitter handle that simply says @NHS – for a whole week? Oh, and I wasn’t to
tell a soul until late on the Friday night before I took it over. All very
secret squirrel but lots of fun, and bit by bit I realised that:
Yes, this was
one of those real “wow” moments in life when the unexpectedly lovely actually
happened, and yes, it was all for real!
Originally, we
were looking at a week some way off in the middle of March, safely far ahead
enough in the distance not to panic me too much. However, a few days later I
had another phone call and I was asked if I could start on the following Monday
instead! Of course, I said, without really thinking, then put the phone down
and thought “oh heck”!
What completely
astounded me was that they really were going to let me loose on the NHS England
account with a very hands-off, light-touch management style. Yes. there were a
few “do’s” and “don’ts” but they were all regarding my own internet safety and
well-being. There was no interference whatsoever, they just let me tweet about
what I wanted to tweet about, although I knew they were watching and waiting to
jump in if things had turned tricky in any way whatsoever for me. I also knew
they were on the end of the phone if I wanted to talk anything through.
I was concerned
that I might not have enough good content to share to get conversations going.
So over the weekend I reached out to online friends in various communities to
help me out.
They were fantastic, they answered my SOS shout-out so well that I
ended up having far too much, so I’ll be continuing to share this incredibly
rich material online in the coming days and weeks.
I also thought
it would be good to create some new content, so I ended up creating eight brand
new videos from scratch during the week too. Looking back that was both daft
and over-ambitious, although I’ve got some brilliant new material from it about
learning disability and autism, doing it at the same time as tweeting was far
too much.
I wanted to
champion the communities that mean the world to me...
.... special needs families,
anyone with a learning disability or autism, and families coping with cancer.
I also wanted
to open discussions about healthcare generally and how we need to do it better,
putting kindness, heart and soul right back where they belong throughout the
NHS. I feel that we will be stronger if we return to values where we prioritise
people – both patients and staff – way ahead of the suffocating bureaucracy
that currently seems to rule the roost.
And so it began
at 8am last Monday morning, when, with exhilaration and blind panic in equal
measures, I sent my first tweet for the @NHS Account – “Good Morning Twitter”.
The response I
got was overwhelming! It felt as if everyone I’d ever spoken to online since
the internet was first invented was there beside me cheering me on, holding my
hand and making it both easy and a whole load of fun.
The rest of the
week passed in a blur of speed tweeting replies as we talked about everything
but particularly vulnerable families, cancer, healthcare relationships, NHS
staff burnout, cups of tea and the overwhelming factor that joined all those
topics together – the power of kindness.
There were
several real highlights though.
On Wednesday I had a VIP visit to The Royal
Marsden where I get my cancer treatment. We met with Kelly from their Comms
team and over coffee we decided on a theme for the day – to celebrate the
unsung heroes of the NHS.
So, camera in
hand, we approached the people who really make the difference to patient care
and well-being with their ready smiles of reassurance and kind words. It was
very emotional as I explained to each of them how they had helped me cope with
particularly difficult
hospital
moments – not one of them knew the difference they make and it was very sad
that they obviously don’t get thanked nearly enough. Twitter that afternoon was
lit up by these lovely people – receptionists, tea ladies, volunteers and of
course some of the kindest nurses that work for the NHS too.
It was the
people on twitter who carried me through the week, wonderfully open hearted
individuals who just welcomed and accepted me as the face of the NHS for the
week. By Friday afternoon I was quite sad to be handing back the password and
to be leaving all my new-found friends.
I wouldn’t have
missed it for the world.
It was an amazing experience and if anyone ever asked
me to do it again I’d jump at the chance. It was exhausting too – and trying to
hold conversations with several people about a myriad of topics while hundreds
more notifications are coming through every few minutes is like juggling
treacle while skiing down a mountain. Friday night when it was over I was
completely exhausted and barely able to speak in joined up words, and it took
me until this morning, Sunday, to feel half like me again.
I learnt so
much too – about twitter, about people, about the NHS but most of all it was a
confirmation that we are all connected, that deep down inside each of us there
is a need to be heard, to be valued and to know that we matter, and that
kindness really can make the world go around.
Yvonne Newbold
February 2017
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