Dear all
As you may remember, I sent a penultimate e mail before leaving Toulon but failed to send the ultimate one. Now seems a good time to do so as we are all hoping that Russ will be repatriated tomorrow.  Saying “goodbye” to Russ on the evening before I left Toulon was very sad and the next day was even more emotional saying ‘goodbye” to Dani.  I feel as if we have all been on a long journey with Russ, the inevitable ups and downs during the nearly seven weeks since he was admitted to ‘Hopital ste. Anne”.  His recovery from his most terrible injuries have, in part, been due to his strength and fortitude and to the unwavering, dedicated care he has received by doctors and nurses alike.  Also I think the love and enduring support of his family and friends have gone a very  long way in determining his recovery. Russ has been cocooned in love by his parents, brothers, in laws and many fantastic friends.
Now, Dani!  Danielle has behaved with enormous courage, dignity and and unwavering strength, in what must be every wife’s worst nightmare.  She has been amazing with their beautiful daughters, finding the strength, during the worst moments, to talk to them nightly on the phone, keeping their spirits raised whilst gently, little by little expressing the seriousness of their Daddy’s injuries.  When each in turn arrived to visit, they were both quite amazing with Russ, a true testament to their mother’s strength.
So now we shall have a new chapter when Russ is repatriated to London Bridge Hospital and I. for one, believe with all my heart that Russ will continue to amaze us all.  Bon courage, Russ, we all love you.
Lastly, for Stuart’s eyes only!!! Please note that this e mail was written mid morning hence no errors or over exuberance!!!!
Dear love to you all
Jenni xxx

The departures hall at Marseille's airport is a fairly sterile, unprepossessing 'environ' in stark contrast to the warmth of the Toulon sea breezes and the warmth of Monsieur R's smile.
Over the last 2 days I have enjoyed the company of this extraordinary man, his superhuman, peerless wife Dani and stoic Dan and Saskia White ....who have quite possibly the most adorable 3 children in history.

Not forgetting a delightful new acquaintance; Oliver Smallman- who I bumped into on my arrival at the Holiday Inn. Oliver is a good friend of Dan Whites and we visited Russ together which caused R much circumspect musings and raised eyebrows. Now;whilst we are on the subject of eyebrows; how many of you have noticed what an impressive , 'Healy-esque' bushy set that Russ has?? At R's bidding I gave them a quick trim-they almost needed their own scaffolding beforehand - with Dani perfecting my work this morning.

M.Rousselle himself was on good form yesterday and we covered a wide variety of zany subjects as he is 80% coherent with his raspy mouthings with the other 20% made up of very legible inscribing.

Russ educated me on the fact that people's ears and noses keep growing throughout their lifetimes. I seriously did not know this. He informed me that the best playlist on spotify is 'Topsify' ; he expressed surprise that there was a shop in the hospital and quickly took Oliver up on his generous offer to purchase an I-phone from there to replace his 'Shite' temporary one.....then twinkled his eyes and said he was only joking!

We reminisced away about Russell's fall out of a tree in Chiswick on his 30th/35th?? birthday; leading me to ask a long awaited question of mine which was why he had felt the need to email pictures of his brutalised face to his entire contact list at the time. Russell positively lit up at this and asked asked with glee whether said photos had been posted on 'his' blog; my emphatic 'NO' rendered him very crestfallen.

Mr.R expressed sadness that he wasn't actually coming 'home' on Thursday(fingers crossed he is flying home then) but to 'another hospital' in the UK.

I believe that both Russ and Lily are allergic to animals and Russ to his chagrin has always  discredited my passion for animals. However; i am shocked and delighted to report that even Russ showed(feigned) interest as I chattered on about a wheelchair-bound friend's 'carer dog'.
He could not believe that these dogs get their own seats on planes......so I attach proof...just for you Russ.



Indeed Mr.R's enthusiasm for having a 'carer dog' stretched to his asking me whether the soleros(that he is currently feasting on in hospital) could be delivered to him by the dog(well at least I think that's what his lascivious licking motions meant).
It was a pleasure to share my 3 hours of visiting time with Oliver Smallman; he was immensely upbeat, positive and reassuring to the great man himself and I am sure; raised his spirits no end plus I think we made a good double act.

I am almost sad to be leaving but they are calling my flight and I am looking forward to visiting as often as possible in the Uk

Love you so so much Russ
Love you so so much Dani(but less of the 'mad Nicola' title)
You are both truly inspirational 

Signing off from ..the 'not so mad and ever so slightly boring now...' Nicola

Xxxxx

Still looking good for repatriation on Thursday. Lots of boxes to tick for everything to completely fall into place; hospital in Toulon have to be happy Russ is safe to fly, insurers have to sort all the logistics including, most importantly, having a jet with the appropriate equipment and medical team and then London Bridge Hospital has to also be (independently) satisfied that Russ is safe to travel and that they have sufficient information properly to prepare for his arrival into ICU. There is no obvious “connect” between these various channels, only me: as such, there is an awful lot of admin stuff to be sorted. In fact, it makes the Legal profession’s “Work Acceptance” Money Laundering processes look like a walk in the park (all lawyer mates will sympathise….:-s).

So, what else is new today? Various medical staff in Intensive Care are about to start their summer holidays. So, a few goodbyes to some really amazing people. They’ve all been invited to stay with us whenever they come to England and all seem very keen to accept our invitation – so look out for lots of lovely French people in London W4!

Tele and Nicola arrived today and, like most people who have seen Russ in the last week or so, have found it a very uplifting and positive experience. Russ loves seeing everyone and always puts in a maximum effort; although tiring, I think the stimulus of seeing different people each day is particularly important given that his days are otherwise governed by unwavering monotonous routine (same walls, same treatment, same interrupted sleep etc). He’s heard all about the blog and is dying to see it but no WiFi in the hospital in Toulon so he’ll have to wait till he gets to the 5 star accommodation at London Bridge Hospital for access to the blog. Mind you, he was amazed when I told him that Melissa says there have been 30,000 hits so far… At that rate, we should think about doing some advertising on the blog! :-s

So, fingers’ crossed for all to go according to plan for Thursday. I know everything is very scary for Russ at the moment but repatriation to London will be quite a significant step in a positive direction.

Nigh night, all xxxx

All progressing well in Toulon and the medical staff here (plus the insurers) are preparing Russ for air repatriation either tomorrow or Thursday. Russ will be flown back on a private medical jet from Toulon straight to an airport nearest to the London Bridge Hospital that they can get clearance to land at. I’m hoping to accompany him on that flight but it will depend on how big the accompanying medical team will be and the size of the particular jet that they have available for the transfer. Fingers’ crossed on that front (especially as it just won’t be fair if Russ has flown on a private jet and I haven’t! :-s ).

Russ is very keen to have all comms in place for when he arrives in London so with the undisputed talents of Andy Richards, we are making sure he has his iPhone, IPad and Mac linked up, upgraded and in super-functioning order. So, get ready for onslaught of texts and emails from the man himself….

Andy recently sent me the brilliant photo of Russ below under the strap line “Typical bonkers Russ”. Poor Andy popped over to pick up some glasses from our house earlier this year and was confronted by Russ looking like that!!!

Peeps out here with me at the moment are Dan, Saskia (and kiddies), Oli Smallman and Mad Nicola. Oli and Nicola saw Russ for the first time (post accident) last night and Oli described it as completely “uplifting” to see him and, in particular, to witness how amazing he is doing given where he was only 6 weeks ago.

Oh, and we’ve managed to engineer a haircut for Russ later today. One of the nurses is going to bring in some clippers. He’ll probably look like a jar head after but definitely preferable to looking like he was the inspiration for the male figure in the “Joy of Sex” books that were published in the 80s. Who remembers those………….? :-s

Love Dani xxxx

The photo I took of the dear boy just after Xmas. Classic bonkers Russ.

From Danibelle x:

Now that Russ is able to eat “normal” food, I arrived at the hospital with a bag of the local grocer’s finest fruit. This was clearly heavenly after 6 weeks on the “goo diet”.

Better still, the hospital catering tray then arrived incorporating a glass of red wine. Only in France! Anyway, Russ clearly hasn’t lost his discerning wine tastes as he had a sip of it and said it was crap! Luckily, help was on it’s way as a very old friend, Sian, arrived with a bottle of Châteauneuf-Du-Pape and a very nice Rose wine, both altogether more to Russ’s liking. So, a few sips of wine later, he was a very happy boy. Russ hadn’t seen Sian for 18 years so there was lots of reminiscing of old times and lots of catching up to be done. By the time lunchtime visiting hours came to an end, the poor guy was exhausted!

Later in the afternoon, Dan and Sas arrived with their gorgeous two boys and baby girl. The day before Dan had climbed the Dome de Miage in Chamonix (a 14 hour climb) which sounded like a gruelling slog (certainly his feet weren’t looking very pretty after the climb). That is one athletic endeavour that won’t be going on my “To Do” list….

So, evening visitors for Russ were me, Dan and Saskia. This is Dan’s 6th visit to see Russ in hospital here in Toulon. An almost “wifely” dedication, I would say (sorry, Dan, if that makes you sound a bit gay….:-s ).

Dxxxx

Danibelle;

I literally was Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible  when I arrived at London City Airport this morning; I was armed with a coterie of  iPads, iPods, iPhones (all generations – as am too much of a techno moron to know what is now obsolete and what is still current so thought I’d just grab the lot), a kindle,  a “pay as you go ” mobile handset and a travel-DVD player. Basically, every communication/entertainment device known to mankind. All because “Monsieur” is keen to get his hands on his gadgetry (not intended to be a euphemism for anything rude by the way…..).

Bearing in mind the last time I saw Russ (6 days ago), he was face-down in an induced coma, it was truly brilliant to see him awake and sitting upright. He seems to have mastered the feat of very successfully communicating by “mouthing words” (with pen & paper back-up when needed) and so we chatted endlessly for 4 hours. He outwitted me a couple of times during the evening (yeah, I know, not hard….) so any earlier concerns regarding potential brain damage have completely subsided.

We had a chat with the very charming  (middle-age woman speak for “tasty” :-s ) Dr Bordes and he is still currently of the view that Russ should be OK to be repatriated by air ambulance either Wednesday or Thursday this coming week. He will go straight into intensive Care at London Bridge Hospital to continue treatment of his respiratory issues which still require him to remain on the ventilator. I was assured that these issues are improving albeit slowly. 

The only issue of immediate concern is Russ’s hair. He is currently sporting a “70’s porn-style” look. Not his finest look…..

Love Danielle xxxx 

Am update July 26th 

Message From Sarah Frankum from hers and Larry’s visit earlier in the week;

This morning we found Russ very much calmer than yesterday. We explained that he was experiencing some drug withdrawal symptoms which he understood and accepted. Russell was wearing a pad around his chest which vibrates for a short period of time six times a day. The vibrations move the mucus around in his lungs which frees it allowing it to be sucked out. This is not a very pleasant procedure for Russell but is preferable to physiotherapy which he finds very painful. Further update this pm

Bob and I shared the afternoon and evening visiting time with Sarah and Larry. Russell was quite subdued. We massaged his shoulders and neck which seemed to make him more comfortable. Russ had a further session with the thoracic vibrator to bring up the mucus so that he could breathe more easily. This exhausted him but he rallied around before we left him. The nurses have told us that his pneumonia is responding to the course of antibiotics which is excellent news. We are hoping that he will feel much better tomorrow. 

Message from Jayne Creamer:

Hi Russ,
From reading the blog it sounds like you are showing some 
true 'Russ form' in being annoyed and annoying - such a relief for us to
 read ;) I can't believe that there is no mention of the biggest news - 
no not the Lions caning the Wallabies - but the birth of the Little 
Prince! who isn't a ginger - so you lost that bet - thanks, Ad and I 
look forward to the beers you now owe us. Current debate is the name - 
we have $2.50 on 'Kanye'.
As has been mentioned, Froome did win the 
tour and in emphatic style - supported by an awesome team including the 
fabulous Aussie package of Richie Porte. Felt sorry for poor Mark 
Cavendish who seemed to be served a rough deal due to the fact that he's
 only managed to win 15 stages this season not the 18 he did last 
season.... what a slacker.  
There's some big cricket comp going on 
too - the Ashes - I believe it's named. Can' tell you much about it as 
they don't talk about it over here. 
Lots of love big boy, Ads and Jayne xxxx