Christmas Cards!

I'm sending very few this year. I've decided for the second year at work to donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association rather than buying the forty or fifty cards I used to send and thankfully, a number of colleagues are doing the same! It should be a really good gesture for the staff of Neurology to support such an important charity... Of course, the MS Society, Epilepsy Action and GBS Support Group might all be a little miffed that we're not supporting them too! Personally, I've always found myself more emotionally affected by MND. It's an awful diagnosis that we give to the most unlucky patients, often offering only eighteen months or so of life from point of diagnosis to their death. It strips people of their swallow ability, their voice, their movement and function and their dignity at a startlingly rapid pace in terms of Neuro-degenerative illness. And it always seems to be the nicest folk who end up with it!

Of course, I do get bothered by other illnesses. Whilst I was struggling to understand the needs of a young woman, severely affected by Multiple Sclerosis the other day I was genuinely moved, nearly crying at all she has to contend with. Others with equally criplling disorders have provoked such reactions but as I say, it is all so much more common with MND patients.

So, if you don't get a card this year, rest assured, the money I would have spent has gone to a good place! (And we've saved some trees in the process!) Besides, BBC Breakfast news reported today that most charity cards only give a small percentage to good casues anyway! This way, the good cause gets it all! :-) Jxx