Sunday 22 March 2009

A tough life

Laurence MacPherson Jones and Julian Bester spent the afternoon telling us about Julian's earlier life in Poland and later in Russia and then on to his wartime experiences. Julian's family were farmers in Poland and then were forced to go and begin all over again in the Ukraine. When Julian was fourteen his whole family were taken prisoner and sent to one of Stalin's labour camps, felling trees along the Volga River. He told us of the dreadful conditions and inhumanity he experienced there. He then went on to serve in the army in northern Iraq, Italy - famously Monte Casino. What a life and what a remarkable man. After all that he is full of life and laughter.
Mary has resigned as our chairman and her replacemnet is David who we all know will do a grand job. Many thanks to Mary for the work she has done since the group started back in 2006. Such a lot has happened since then.
A couple of weeks ago quite a few of us went to the Swansea group meeting to hear about Haemair. This is an amazing device that re-oxygenates the blood and they hope in about ten years time to be able to implant this and do away with the need for transplants. As transplants rarely happen because of lack of organs available this is a huge leap forward and offers us all hope. Let's hope their work continues at a fast pace. It is being developed here in Swansea - just google Haemair to read all about it - it is so exciting.

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