This Volunteers Week, we want to thank our Healthwatch Essex volunteers and ambassadors. Below is a poem written by Mike, one of our Cancer Patient Partners who sadly passed away recently. Thank you, Mike, for all you have done to improve local services for others and to share your story. Your work is so appreciated.
Any Port In A Storm
A port is a place where adventures begin
But this one has got under my skin
It’s where the needles go in
I want it to take me to faraway places
Sail the sea with unknowing faces
Instead the metastases
Metastases are cancers traveller
A fantastic voyage through lymph node and liver
To f*** you forever
A port can be the beginning or the end
But this hopeless journey my friends
It is too hard to comprehend
Sarah and Anna and Beth are my crew
And you and many others too
But they, my angels, are steering me through
Perhaps we can make it as far as the shore
The weather might hold just a bit more
Is a beach too much to ask for?
We can laugh and swim and play in the sand
Wait to be rescued back to dry land
High and dry in fairyland
It is tempting at night to look up to the heavens
And wonder and hope and maybe confession
Take pascal’s wager betting on heaven
Wake up! Without faith it’s not going to happen
No rescue no God no miracle captain
Is coming to save you just wait for the end
At the quantum level there is no time at all
Stay on the beach forever more
It is another tempting thought
No! I’m building a raft I bloody will make it home
They can scan from the port, then the distance is known
And hope we all make it home
And you won’t be alone
A port is a place where adventures begin
But this one has got under my skin
It’s where the needles go in