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Saturday 4 January 2014

Our Angel trumps your demon !



 " Well," said the doctor, "there is good news and bad news. Which would you like first?" Opting for the bad - it's always reassuring to know that there is something else to soften the blow - I waited. Almost imperceptibly, she hesitated. "The bad news is that you have leukaemia. The good news is you have a 50-50 chance of living beyond the next few days."

 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/i-was-told-i-could-die-within-days-531688.html

The above comes from a newspaper article from the 2nd November 2004 TWELVE YEARS AFTER nineteen year old Emma Bowes Romanelli was given her good and bad news by a doctor in Stoke Mandevile Hospital ! This and the following article accompanied the release of Emma's book - a truly remarkable story !

 'This week sees the publication of Bowes Romanelli's book, Between Angels & Demons, a moving and unexpectedly funny account of her battle against leukaemia and her determination to take up her place at Oxford, halfway through her chemotherapy treatment.'

'The former broadcaster Jimmy Savile, an active supporter of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, took the captivating teenager under his wing, organising days out for her and introducing her to the Duchess of York. Both became friends: the Duchess sent a basket of flowers to her wedding in 1995, Savile was a regular visitor to her family home, and Between Angels & Demons contains contributions from them.
"The great thing about Jimmy was that he introduced me to the idea of living with cancer, rather than dying from it. We had such a special rapport, and still do."

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3310009/Cancer-has-made-my-life-special.html

I have only very recently come across Emma's story via the Telegraph article.  I have not seen ANY reference to this lady anywhere since October 2012.  I found out why when I read her book.  She writes with genuine warmth and admiration for the man she often simply refers to as 'Jim' !





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Emma was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) a cancer of the immune system.  Her condition was not rare but the fact that she got it 12 years after most children contract it made her chances of survival almost NIL !  Three weeks after being admitted to Ward 1X of Stoke Mandeville Hospital whilst enduring treatment that caused her to feel as though her body had been 'turned inside out' she made her first acquaintance with 'Mr Fix it' !

Jimmy was held in great esteem by the staff and patients alike at SMH so much so that, whilst other visitors to Emma were made to wear special protective garments by way of infection control, he was not !




The visit was a special one - it was just for Emma




The visit caused a good deal of excitement for the nursing staff too, who were 'eager' to witness the youngsters reaction ! It would not be the last !




 After that first visit Jimmy left Emma his private phone number with a nurse which 'although scrawled haphazardly on an unassuming scrap of paper, the number was clearly worth more than it's weight in gold if the sense of ceremony and "cat that got the cream ishness with which it was purveyed to my hospital bedside that morning had been anything to go by'

Emma called Jimmy who told her that he had a 'job' for her at the hospital, is she felt well enough. This immediately appealed to her as a way of giving something back 'for the privilege of being alive' despite all her suffering. Jimmy had led her to believe that she would be helping surprise a young paraplegic woman in another part of the hospital.  Instead, the Duchess of York appeared as a surprise for HER !

Thereafter followed other surprises including a seat near the Duchess at the World Wheelchair Olympic Games, an event that had been established at Stoke Mandeville decades before ! Emma had already met another inspirational man in the shape of Dr Michael Rogers who became disabled at the age of 23 as a result of a virus which left him paralyzed from the kneck down and only able to control his wheelchair with his chin.  Emma referred to Michael her and Jimmy as 'the three muskateers' such was their bond !


Emma is a devout christian 'God is my friend' she says early in her book.  She describes one night when she was rushed back to hospital after a short period at home 'bourne on angels' wings my astonishing mother flew through the night'.  Her 'demons' were not just the cells that were attacking her blood but the 'poisonous syringe' that caused her so much agony and pain.  Her agonies were not merely physical either as one side effect of the drugs she had to endure was what is known as 'steroid psychosis' episodes of which saw her behaviour become uncontrollable.

Emma took on her 'demons' and won.  She got to Oxford University just a year after her diagnosis.  The same year she met her husband to be and, eleven years later she wrote her book, I know no more about her post 2004 but here's what Jimmy had to say about her the same year 


It is ironic that the same year Sir Jimmy met Emma, Valerie Sinason was, she says talking to a woman making claims about Satanic abuse in Stoke Mandeville Hospital !

 http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/370439/Jimmy-Savile-was-part-of-satanic-ring

Our Angel will trump your demon every time !


 Emma donated 'a very significant' percentage of the proceeds of her book to the Teenage Cancer Trust - Thank you Angel !

















13 comments:

  1. Perfectly Brilliant.
    An angel for the top of any Xmas tree.
    Happy New Year.

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  2. Thank you - she is isn't she !

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  3. Emma is corroborated by Jonny

    "Jonny's story won't be changing. He died in 2003, aged 36. His trip to meet Jimmy Savile took place when he was around 11 or 12, according to his book. That would make Jonny's visit to date to around 1978."
    http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/two-faces-two-little-boys.html

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  4. Thank you for that Rabbitaway - an inspirational story on many levels for me.

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  5. Thank you Anna - keep your Angel close ! xx

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  6. Rabbitaway, Anna, Moor, thanks for all your brilliant and persistent detective work.

    I find it utterly depressing that people so want to find evil, that they take the gossip of teenage girls, forty years old at that, as complete and accurately remembered truth, when evidence to the contrary exists, and even their own common sense should make them wonder: how does somebody for example, assault a child in a hospital bed? Of course, they aren't shown the evidence of the truth, and our paid servants (the police) have deserted their primary duty - the investigation of crime. Instead, they obsess about kissing with tongues and hands on knees decades ago.

    I thought the public would have more sense after the Stefan Kiszko case; the teenage girls instrumental in his conviction never did apologise, in my view they should have been prosecuted for perjury with the full force of the law, pour example les autres. From Wikipedia:

    -- Also in February 1991, the four girls involved in the court trial admitted that the evidence they had given which had led to Kiszko's arrest and conviction was false, and that they had lied for "a laugh" and because "at the time it was funny".





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    1. Thanks 'Core' - yes the KiszKo case remember it well - very sad indeed. I think that certain cases need to be remembered like we remember the fallen at the cenotaph - such awful incidents should NEVER be allowed to happen, but who cared enough for that poor soul !

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  7. Deeply moving. "Beauty is truth, truth, beauty".

    Love and best wishes from "PD".

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  8. I don't believe any of us are wholly either Angel or Demon. Jim clearly wasn't the 'saint' that so many people stopped him to call him when we were out together. But neither was he the 'evil monster' that the (shamelessly sensationalist) media are now calling him. 'Off-stage', without a fanfare of trumpets or the applause of a crowd, I saw Jim, with his remarkable ability to make things happen, give so many people - old and young - a chance to make their dearest-held dreams come true. I was moved to tears by the indescribable joy of an elderly and dying man who had always wanted to appear in a newspaper as he recounted his life-story to an attentive journalist and grinned toothlessly for the camera-man. :-) ! I think it is as wrong to undermine the enormous power for good that Jim was in his lifetime as it would be to ignore what has recently come to light. Someone needed to make that point. I am so glad that you have… All for one and one for all! Your, little musketeer! (Emma Bowes Romanelli) x

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    1. What a lovely surprise I had on Friday night to find that you had left a comment on my blog Emma. A very big THANK YOU to you ! I send you my warmest regards xx

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    2. There seems very good reason to think that what you used to believe, remains the real truth Emma.

      http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/stoke-man-de-savile.html

      It's a big Blog, but somebody had to do it. As I understand it, the NHS Inquiry is bullying anyone connected with JImmy who does not toe the required line. Have you dealt with them Emma?

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    3. came across a very different side to this story today...

      https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/7881025.our-living-hell/

      "As a former hospital chaplain, Ann knew the symptoms of leukaemia and recognised them in her ailing teenage daughter long before the doctors did. But even then she was not prepared for the diagnosis when it came"

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