TODAY! Bette’s Happy Hour with Russell Jones

Bette members—please register for our Tuesday Happy Hour at 10:30 am Pacific, with Byline Times columnist Russell Jones as we pay tribute to his ‘cancerversary’ and the great work of the NHS staff

***Bette members will find the registration link below the paywall. To join our community Speakeasy and Happy Hour events, please take out a membership and support independent investigative journalism in a time of grave deception.***

This event begins in 20 minutes:

• Bette’s Happy Hour with Russell Jones, today, Tuesday, April 22, 10:30 am Pacific. Byline Times columnist Russell Jones will share with us his ‘cancerversary’ — reflecting on the heroism of the NHS doctors and nurses in the UK.

Russell Jones's Week Moment: My Cancerversary

Rarely have I been so moved by a personal memoir that I had to reach out to the author, but when I was reading my colleague Russell Jones ‘cancerversary’ reflections last week, I had to contact him.

A columnist for Byline Supplement, Jones just celebrated his 15th anniversary of the “removal from his kidney of the biggest tumour in Stockport”. As he tells the details with both humor and agony, a clear theme emerged of the heroism of those who treated him and saw him through the near-death ordeal.

I recommend you read the entire article posted above, and when you’re done having a good laugh and cry, register for tomorrow’s event.

Here is a snipped from his Byline memoir:

I lay in a bed and watched through a morphine haze as the NHS fought tirelessly on my behalf, dozens of them, maybe hundreds, day and night, for months.

In the wee small hours, I had a little weep, which is most unlike me. A Malaysian nurse sat with me for hours, holding my hand in silence, the pair of us softly serenaded by Clive. Of all those who struggled to help me during those months, it is she who I remember the most…

Everything about me was reduced, actually. My youthful certainty in my own invincibility was gone…

I Marie Kondo’d my life, carelessly throwing overboard anything that didn’t bring me immediate joy… something inside me was reborn. Until the age of 40, I’d been drifting through life with a shrug. Post-cancer, that changed. It made me care again…

Over the next days and weeks, I had to learn to walk again, and then spent a year undergoing physiotherapy and convalescence. By this point the Tories had deemed that near-fatal cancer wasn’t a proper illness, so I received no benefits whatsoever, and would have ended up homeless but for the kindness and generosity of friends and family. Instead, I got to gently recuperate in my rented house and, desperate to avoid any more boredom, I taught myself to paint.

He shared this brilliant painting of David Bowie with Byline:

Most importantly, we get the democracy we vote for and his 4,000 word essay revealed how important UK National Health Service is and how much we lose when we sabotage our own interests at the ballot box.

There are still democracy’s in Europe providing health care for its citizens. I hope this time we spend with Jones reaffirms how important and sacred that care is and how much people worldwide need to fight to preserve what they have.

In solidarity, reality, truth, and unity,

Heidi xo

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Begin each day with a grateful heart.

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