A Poem by Jo Adamson: Would a Blood Test Have Helped

Jo co-owns a fabulous shoe shop in Bristol called Oddsox and is a busy Mum of 3. Big brother Alex is 16, Kitty, pictured below, is 8 (and has Down's syndrome) and Larry is the youngest at 6. 

Jo approached me a little while ago with a heart-felt poem she had written following the launch of the new ante-natal screening test for Down's syndrome. Simply called Would A Blood Test Have Helped, it sums up what many of us feel.

Kitty, 8, is the motivation for Jo's moving poem

Would a blood test have helped

A Poem for a Lost Friend: Peter Cranham

This week an incredible man passed away. 

Peter Cranham was a great entertainer, actor, ambassador and speaker, changing lives for those with learning disabilities. He was a devoted brother, 

He was also a dear friend.

I miss his weekly calls, that always came as I peeled potatoes or wiped a snotty nose, and had determined to call him when the children were in bed.

So very thoughtful, "How's Bob?" he'd ask, "How did your talk to the teachers go today?"

He always remembered. He always enquired. He always made me smile.

He was a real one off. The kind of person you only meet once in your life.

Last winter, as November ran its course, Peter came to stay with our family. We shared unfeasably large portions of fish and chips, walked the dog in nearby woods, and, very specially we decorated our Christmas tree together with him. It was a day early, the last day of November, but I'm so glad we shared that special time. Peter was as excited as the girls, eagerly holding his hand out for the next bauble as I looped it's string over his finger.  

I remember a fleeting thought, as it crossed my mind, lifting a glass orb from it's nestled year long hibernation: "Who knows what memories these decorations will hold when we unpack them next year?"

I wrote him a little poem about how we met 2 days before he died:

Nervous, a fish out of water 
I entered the venue alone
Eagerly seeking the faces of unknowns I was to meet

A conference
A guest speaker
Miles from the comfort of my home, children, family

It was my first ever gig
A talk to a room full of professionals
Was I up to it?

You instinctively sensed my nerves
My self-doubt, my awareness
That I felt different

And unhindered by reserve you came forward
Held my hand 
Welcomed and introduced me to all

The new team shared a meal, 
A glass of wine 
Stories, tales and easy laughter

How we giggled finding you at a glitzy award party
A detour from the restrooms
Living fully in each moment

Next day I watched you talk
Tears flooded my face as I learnt
You'd been a victim of hate crime

Glassed in the face
Your gentle, innocent soul
Terrorised

Just for being different

But it was you who comforted me
Soothed my disbelieving anger
With a wise and knowing smile

You touched my life that day
Filled me with determination
To join you to create lasting change

To follow your lead
To make a difference
To remove the fear society has

Just for being different




Please watch Peter's story here. An award-winning film he made to teach medical professionals and help other's with a learning disability.
  

Hearing from afar how amazingly Peter was cared for in those last days has strengthened my respect for learning disability nurses yet further. Please read about what they do here in Make Positive Choice for Learning Disability Nurses.

Readers' Stories - Andie Barker

Andie Barker sent in this poem she wrote in the early days after her daughter Hope was born. It is honest and full of love. It will bring a lump to the throat of even the hardest hearted.

Hope: Pretty in Pink

• I think she has downs I heard them say
  No my head screamed, oh god no way
  They passed her to me, I didn't look
  They put her to breast she started to suck,
  But something was wrong, 
  As a mum I knew
  Her hands feet and body were turning blue,
  
  
  Get the doctor I heard them call
  As the walls of my mind began to fall,
  I couldn't do this they must have it wrong
  Where was my princess I wanted so long,
  The doctors came with a look in their eye
  As they took her away, I was scared she
  would die
  
  
  Then it hit me like boom in my brain
  Pull yourself together you're a new mum again
  Fighting for her life among wires and things,
  Machines making noise ping ping ping
  She has to pull through, she has to stay strong,
  She's my flesh and blood, don't make me wrong
  
  
  Sink or swim my time was here 

  and now,
  Decisions I made would alter everything somehow
  For two whole minutes I had doubted me,
  Now I'm the proudest mum for the world to see
  Nobody wishes for a child with special needs But we get what we get, when we sow the seeds
  
  
  Babies don't chose to be born this way
  It's nobody's fault, believe in what they say
  So things will be different, things will be new
  But your new baby waits for nobody but you
  We named you Hope when we knew you were a gal
  A name you have lived up to it fits you so well
  
  
  You're not the end of the world as they led me to think
  
  
  You're our gorgeous daughter all cute wearing pink .
  
  
  

Readers' Stories - Katherine Routley

Katherine forwarded this poem, written by her sister when their daughter Megan was born. It certainly brought tears to my eyes, and will yours too...

Mia and Megan

Dearest Megan…. With Love

In September 2011,

A gift from up above,

Was sent down to us from heaven,

To cherish and to love.

You were born quite unexpectedly,

Though a wonderful surprise,

That After 9 long months of waiting,

You now lay before our eyes.

A precious new sister for Mia,

A beautiful new daughter too,

A gift to my wonderful sister

That no one deserves more than you.

A perfect little package,

With 10 fingers and 10 toes,

As small as baby Annabelle!

With a tiny button nose!

We were told that you are special,

Maybe different from the rest,

But of course we knew that already,

Because to us you are the best!

But it wasn’t to be quite that simple,

For what we were about to hear,

Which was every Drs nightmare,

And every parent’s worse fear.

How could it be you’re so poorly?

When you look so perfect and well?

But the Drs knew what they were looking for,

And that’s how that they could tell.

For to them you were showing some tell tale signs,

That’s you carried the 3^rd chromosome,

But to us that didn’t make sense at all,

Did that mean you wouldn’t come home?

Of course we know now, that it didn’t mean that,

And we now know just what it means,

Because Trisomy 21 makes you special,

Due to something in your genes!

And although things weren’t as expected, 

And at first we all felt afraid, 

but who are we to question,

The choice’s that God has made.

For he gave to us an angel, 

so precious and so sweet, 

and we will thank him each and every day, 

for the fact that we all could meet.

Megan, you are our angel,

And you are the love we adore,

You may need us more than ever its true,

But we will certainly need you more.

We will turn our times of sorrow 

Into happy times at last,

The crying and the heartbreak, 

Will soon become memories of the past.

 

We'll look forward to the future, 

and the milestones that it holds, 

we'll battle all the up and downs,

As they each unfold.

You were sent here for a reason, 

it was clear right from the start,

You will be loved forever and ever,

From the bottom of our hearts.