Thank You

I just thought I would like to dedicate a post to all of you who have followed this blog over the past few years day in day out and thank you for continuing to do so.

In recent months , you may have noticed that I have been posting fewer poems but that is because something exciting has come out of the original reason for posting a poem a day which I will share now.

As you may be aware, I started this blog on the back of a challenge to post a poem a day for a year at the same time raising awareness of cardiac arrhythmias and syncope.  This was a very personal challenge for me, having been diagnosed with PoTS after a 30 plus year struggle of passing out in the most bizarre situations yet never getting a diagnosis until 2008.  But true to form, when life gives you lemons and you choose to make lemonade, truly remarkable things can happen.

The poetry challenge was well received and the statistics showed just how many of you read it but more importantly just how many were finding out why I was doing it.  From this, Ginz and Tonic started to raise awareness just as I had hoped and to this day continues to do so.  But it also led to the formation of a specialist support group for patients in our area who also have an arrhythmia or suffer from Syncope.

As a psychology student with special interest and a background in Positive Psychology and coaching, I set about working with dedicated clinicians from our local hospital, Grantham Hospital and together we formed Beat-It Grantham.  This arrhythmia and syncope support group facilitates a programme of education, a platform of shared lived experience between members and much needed social support.  We also go into the local community to raise further awareness of these conditions and last night were delighted to be recognised for our work at the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust Staff Awards evening as we were presented with the working together award for 2016.

Life is a collaboration and when we work together we can truly benefit so many but then doesn’t the blogging community know that already!?!  So my message is one of thanks to all who have supported this venture from the beginning.  I don’t think I ever thought that the beat in poetry would translate into the beat within that is our heartbeat but there you go – remarkable things happen with a little innovation and a lot of help from your friends!  Life is good!  Life is inspirational!

Many thanks

Gini

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