In the sweltering temperatures of last weeks heatwave, while you were all sunbathing in your back gardens, we were working hard here at Broughton Hall.
A few weeks prior, by pure chance, (thanks to Catrina) we attended an event that I thought was going to be a waste of £70. An event in a cinema in Leeds of all places. Amazingly, we were suddenly in front of a panel of leading journalists who were at our disposal.
I couldn’t believe my luck and was the first person to stick my hand up! Immediately I shared our CES story with everyone in the room, determined to demonstrate that we had a very important story that needed national publicity. Years of frustration in getting nowhere taking over.
The panel agreed our story had merit, and after the event Camilla Munkabady (former Editor of ITV and BBC News at Ten) approached us.
She gave me the name of a journalist at BBC News who was the legal correspondent there and told me to message him. ‘Say Camilla has told us to get in touch, we have a story that needs covering!” she said.
So, I went home and sent my Tweet, a few words to say ‘Hi’ and ‘Camilla says…’
Bingo! The next day I had a reply and then a phone call from Clive Coleman, who had taken the time to call before he went on holiday for the week. I was blown away – this was our chance!
Catrina and I went into a state of delirium I think, we were so excited.
By the middle of the next week Clive was at Broughton Hall with Naresh and Julius, filming us and creating a story for the News.
They followed this up with interviews, talking to our supporting medical and legal partners to establish some facts, helping paint a picture of something we are all too aware of, as people living with the aftermath of cauda equina syndrome.
Finally, after years and years of knocking on doors and them being firmly slammed in my face, someone had taken the time to listen, had seen the importance of what we had to say and cared enough to do something about it. Now we are getting some credible national coverage of the scandal that surrounds Cauda Equina Syndrome.
I look forward in anticipation to the finished article and will share it with you all as soon as possible. Fingers crossed everyone – hopefully to be aired on BBC News next week.
To read the BBC article please visit the BBC website.
With special thanks to:
- Camilla Munkabady
- John Reynard and Nish Srikandarajah
- Sally Leonards and our legal panel members
- Clive Coleman, Naresh Puri and Julius – BBC News
- Roger Tempest and Simon Farrimond – Broughton Hall
- Catrina and Margaret Farnell
- Martin Brown
- Jill Harrison-White
- Steven and Lisa Smith
- Allison and Nigel Whitehorn