11th August

The great day. The handing over of the BIG cheque, you know the 4 foot by 2 foot jobby that you see on Telethons and so forth.

Wexham Park had laid on a fabulous presentation. Everyone was there, all the surgeons, doctors, half of the ITU nursing staff (the other half were nursing the sick in ITU and swapped over at half time). It was a wonderful closure to the whole episode. And we were able to present a cheque for £50,000, much in excess of our original target and all of it allocated to the 4 machines that ITU will now buy. The Draeger Evita XL ventilator with pendant fitting to be positioned over a bed space in ITU and then 3 Oxylog 3000 transportable ventilators to go in ambulances when ITU need to move their patients to other hospitals for specialist treatment.

All the local press were present and we had persuaded London Tonight to come along and do a piece. It appeared on the 6.30 news and again at 10,30 and was a terrific piece in most respects. I had supplied them with material that we had shot on the day back in April 2006 and asked them not use the shot of the accident or the aftermath. There was plenty of good stuff showing flares alight and the deploying of them. Unfortunately for one reason or another they used the footage. I should have known better. I had handed the 'Sweet Jar' to them and they couldn't resist. So the piece is more harrowing for family than it needed to be and what was supposed to be our final act, the closure, was in rather ruined for us. Has someone got something against me - the accident, the torrid fight with the insurance company and now this ? London Tonight have apologised - easy really when you have got what you want and you want to avoid a complaint to Offcom or worse - and to their credit they have made a small donation to the ventilator fund. Apparently they are not a rich TV company. Yeah, yeah and I am told that the Queen is a bit strapped for cash. Anyway to have got a 'sorry' out them was pretty good going. The piece, nonetheless, is very good so everyone tells me. And in case you missed it I believe that one can still see it on the London Tonight website at;

http://www.itvlocal.com/london/news/?void=222322

It was all Sally's idea and what a good idea it was !

Thank you so much to all those indicuduals from around the world who gave so generously. Some of the indidual sums were enormous. And thank you to the Friends of Maltman's Green who gave the proceeds from the Summer Ball which went way over expectations. Thank you to Chiltern Shakespeare Company for giving us the proceeds from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thank you to the Lions for the proceeds from the parking at the Dream show. Thank you to Michael Vivien and Julie Berry for putting on a Breath of Fresh Air, or 'Last Gasp' as I liked to call it. And finally thank you to Sally for unending support.

Wexham Park suggested that we might name the ventilator. I think they were thinking of a park bench style dedication. But Ellie piped up and in her ever original manner of naming stuffed toys, Giraffey, Lioney, Rabbitty, etc, suggested 'Venty'.

I think we will say "Thanks for saving Duncan's life. Sally MacDougall".

Duncan