Bastard fags!!

I was going to tell you about my lovely walk amongst the snowdrops yesterday, but the sad news of Richard Briers death announced today changed my mind. (Maybe I'll upload those photos tomorrow) The bastard fags took my Mum too...she was only 66 years old. I read that Richard was diagnosed 5 years ago...Mum had a similar amount of time...searches on the internet seem to show that 5 years is about the average prognosis.

Richard gentle words when speaking about the bastard disease are kindly understated....
"I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside," he told the Daily Mail.
"I haven't even got the strength to garden any more. Trying to get upstairs - oh God, it's ridiculous.
"The ciggies got me. I didn't think it would go quite as badly as it has. It's a bugger, but there it is. I used to love smoking."

He really isn't joking when he says trying to get upstairs is ridiculous...just going up to the loo becomes an impossibilty and you're left helpless and undignified. Mum felt a huge amount of guilt that she had brought it on herself, and the medical profession ensured that message was hammered home at every opportunity !! (I'm not going down that route as it just makes me angry...and that won't help )

I gave up smoking nearly 2 years ago..I may or may not have done it in time..we'll just have to wait and see.  All of us smokers have to make our own decision on when to give up....if you watch someone you love becoming inexorably incapacitated ( and bless 'im "I haven't got the strength to garden" kind of makes light of what emphysema did to him and all other sufferers) and then, rather selfishly, think of how you would handle it,  it makes you give some serious thought to trying to give up (again)

I think maybe there needs to be more publicity ...Liz Dawn has bravely spoken out ...all the time I smoked I thought that the danger was lung cancer...and I never knew anyone that died from lung cancer in my family or friends, colleagues and aquaintances families...so I didn't worry too much ( I could get hit by a bus haha)...it seems to me the real threat sneaks up with being a bit out of puff, the need to sit and rest a little more often (sit and have a fag?) and by the time you realise how serious it is...it's way too late.

Rest in peace Mum, rest in peace Richard , and everyone else taken by the bastard fags. A huge hug and respect for what they are going through to anyone suffering now. And if you are still smoking I wish you the strength to give them up ...took me MANY goes...drugs and the quit smoking people worked for me in the end.

Anyway...enough misery moaning...I'm going to pour myself a big glass of elderberry wine and I promise to be more chirpy tomorrow

KKWF ^..^