I’m almost tearful at the overwhelming amount of blogging, emails, texts and cards that I’ve had by 8.30 am. Shouldn’t you all be asleep!
The outpouring of love is almost matched by the outpouring of crap that I’m managing to cough up myself today. Nice, right? You didn’t really need to picture that…. But for ME, it’s a big deal believe me! 🙂
All of your messages are funny/imaginative/ thoughtful and I pictured in my head everyone writing them. Never in my most optimistic dreams would I have thought that so many people would give me their valueable time ( especially since most of you are probably hungover )
Today has started well and is going to get even better.
To Russikins! Happy Birthday Dude! You gonna ask for Sambuca in the drip for this special day? See you soon Gorgeous boy. Love Chrissie Wissie and the Bretmeister, Tia Lily and Jasmine (and your fave fluffy ankle biter, Bertie!) xxxxxxx
Charlie Perkins
Russ – Happy Birthday matey from the Middle Kingdom! We’ll toast you with a glass of baijiu and some chicken feet! Keep on mending! Love Charlie and Sarah X (from Sarah!)
Russell Bowyer
Thanks Melissa. Please can you give Russ a big birthday hug (and best wishes from me....). Best (Another) Russell
Sian James
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU , HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR RUSS la la la la la la
With loads of love,
Sian xx
James and Bev
Russy boy, Happy birthday fella, it's taken you nearly five decades but you've got people serving you grapes on a platter 24hrs a day. In fact bet you've even got them doing it nude or at least in suspenders for your special day. Was thinking about you more than usual today here in Canada as we're staying by a lake (pretending to be a wilderness family but it's overpriced etc) and went for a canoe. Amazingly for Canada I was the only gay sorry kayaker in the village which clearly wouldn't have been the case if you'd been here. Well I wouldn't have been the only kayaker anyway! Give the girls a hug D, L & A not the nurses you dirty old man! Laters buddy, James x
AUNTY WENDY AND JOHN
Your best presant in the world....having your gorgeous girls and your wonderful Dani with you, which makes your birthday dear Russ very special.
Looking forward to being with you on the 27 / 28th of this month.
Love you loads Aunty Wendy and John x x x x x
Tim Birt and Osbourne Clarke
Dear Melissa, On behalf of everyone at OC , and especially all of Dan’s partners, friends and pals please give Russ a huge cheer on his birthday from us all. We have been amazed by him , his family and his astonishing friends and hope that he is able to celebrate with you on the day. Whoever would have thought opticians could be so incredibly cool and gutsy! Tim ROB COLLIVER Hahahahave a great day, you old git” PENNY PRITCHARD HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSS!! We hope you have a truly happy day with your wonderful family……..and a few vodka jellies maybe?!
We have been following your amazing progress through the blog and think about you all each day. We hope that your shared ‘sofa’ moment comes round very soon.
With very best wishes from Penny, Phil, Summer & Olive Pritchard xxxx
(Olive did make you a card but I didn’t get it in the post in time :0( – sorry! )
TELE AND NICOLA Hi Russ Wishing you a Happy Birthday !!! Thinking of you as always All our love Tele and Nicola Kyriacou
Sarah Hubner-Clark
Darling Russ,
Greetings from the USA…and wishing you a fabulous & very…
I think women make the world go round. Since my accident I’ve largely been looked after by the ‘fairer sex’ and wow, they’ve been just fantastic. So boys, please give it up for the ladies.
34 tomorrow. Birthday in a hospital bed? It’s a first. Getting my appetite back suddenly so cake on the agenda.
And guess what! X ray at 8, then tracheotomy out! Speaking, eating, swallowing, coughing all back in one go. How cool is that!?
I feel progress is much more tangible suddenly.
X
Comment from Lissie; Bloody fab news Russ..A great start to your birthday! Lots of love xxxx
My mum, Jenni has just sent the below to the staff at the ITU ward in Toulon:
I think it says ‘Thanks’ for sending Russ back to the UK alive.
Thank you letter to Hopital Sainte Anne
A day or so after Russ arrived at Sainte Anne, a French man was also brought into ITU in a near by room. The wife arrived shortly afterwards with her two daughters who are a little younger than Lily and Amber. It appeared that the woman had left home as soon as she had been told her husband was gravely ill and had traveled some distance as for the following week or so the family, although clean and tidy wore the same clothes day in, day out. Dani brought chocolate to the hospital for the two girls as they and their mum kept vigil at the hospital like Dani. At the time it wasn’t appropriate to ask what the situation was but we learnt after a fortnight’s struggle, the husband sadly died. He would have been a similar age to Russ and it really brought home the severity of the whole situation and how lucky we are all to be telling a different story.
Today is our very first day at home. We live in the country,I can hear an owl outside very close to our house. It seemed very strange to be occupied with ordinary domesticity rather than travelling on the tube to visit Russ at some point during the day. Looking back over the last week is quite extraordinary. When we arrived Russ looked so thin, so tired, so despondent, so sad. He was not eating or sleeping very well and it showed in his face and general demeanor .During the week he made a massive effort to eat . He saw fewer visitors which allowed him to sleep during the day. What a difference this made . Russ's face lightened, he smiled more frequently and his appearance quickly became less gaunt. I took the photo yesterday when Russ was eating his lunch. The tracheotomy is still in place so that eating is not easy, its time consuming and difficult, you are really trying so hard. Well done Russ. You are recovering , on ward and upward. See you soon. Love from Mum and Dad
My beautiful family are back tomorrow, so I can’t wait to spend ALL Saturday and Sunday just with them 🙂 If anybody out there was planning to come see me, then I wonder could you reschedule to another time? It’s my birthday on Sunday, yep 34. I feel old too… Today I had the world’s longest blimmin MRI scan…. About 90 minutes in a very small noisy tunnel, sweating like a sweaty thing. Was literally running off me. Hopefully they’ll find out a fair bit about the state of my spine, well that was the idea anyway. Watched Mo win the 5,000 Wow, what a run. He spent his childhood in Feltham, where we have a practice. We’ve just spent about 40k doing the place up. He costs 2k to come and officially ‘re-open’ the place. Worth it, or not?
As most of you probably know Dani, Amber and Lily have been in Portugal for a week. Russ has missed them immensely. They are coming home tomorrow and their first stop will be London Bridge Hospital to see Daddy.
Russ is really hoping for some quality time alone with his brood so if you are planning to visit over the weekend, please can you reschedule for next week or next weekend so the clan can have a good regroup?
I have just read your blog but decided I can’t write the following knowing that you have by now no doubt had over 50,000 hits?! There was an evening in Toulon (I think it was the Wednesday evening after your accident), there were quite a few of your family & friends there: Dani, Alwyn, Stuart, Jenni, Dan, Lisa and Karena (your Mum and Dad were also there but at their hotel miles away!) and by all accounts the news looked a lot more promising than it had that first weekend. The evening ended up being a late one with non-stop Russel stories being told. It was quite unbelievable how many totally unique and bloody hilarious stories that were being told. It was very surreal knowing that you were up the road fighting for your life and obviously highly emotional for Dani. The one thing that struck us all though was the amount of friends, family and love that people have for you. So remember that when you are reflecting on the person you are! – you are very special and unique Russ-Boy.
Most of you know our friend Beth went in for a surgical procedure for an Arse Lift at the Tesco Medical Center . She didn’t have the most pleasant experience. She should’ve left well enough alone. We wanted to show you how it turned out. We hope this keeps YOU from having this done.
Please, PLEASE, PLEASE . . . Don’t get an Arse Lift at the Tesco Medical Center . You will most certainly regret it!
From Piran Shelley; We can make plans on how to get him back on the Thames with the river in the background to inspire him. With Russ leaning like this learning how to paddle again can only do him good 😉
