A Loo with a View, Herbal Home Births and More

By 3rd March 2018Studio Chit Chat

I twinned our studio toilet this week. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, but last week’s brush with the NHS gave me the kick to want to do something that would really make a difference to someone less fortunate.

My daughter is having a hearing aid trial and until we went to pick up her hearing aid, I hadn’t appreciated the magnitude of how marvelous the NHS is: What we actually have at our fingertips if we need it. We are so lucky in this country.

NHS Vs American Health Care

One of my clients was telling me her experience with the NHS. Her little boy has quite a prominent birthmark on his face. She is part of an online group with mothers from around the world. The American mothers talk about how much they have invested in removal treatments, and we are talking thousands of dollars. These mothers are amazed that we can have the same treatment for free in this country. We don’t even think about it, if we need help with our health care, the NHS is there for us.

I listen to audio books when I edit and this week I have been listening to Educated by Tara Westover. She tells a true memoir of another America where the people don’t have the money to visit the hospital or a doctor. Right now in America, her mother is an illegal midwife, going from home to home to deliver babies for those too poor to go to hospital. She doses her clients with herbs and concoctions she has made at home and prays that the birth goes smoothly.

Imagine that today! We don’t even think twice about being able to visit the doctor or go to the hospital to have our babies. We write our birthing plans and grumble that there aren’t enough birthing pools.

Toilet Twinning

Did you know one in three people around the world don’t have a toilet? Pretty bonkers when you think how often we need to use one. By toilet twinning, you give a family the means to build their own facility. It’s a basic long drop. But it is a private, hygienic place to poo and this is a life changer.

Our twinning is with a toilet in the Congo, and before it was built, the family had to go off into the bush to do their business where they are vulnerable to being attacked. Got a spare £60? It’s not much to change someone’s life.

Aspire and Appreciate

I noticed on this week’s school run that Lancaster’s Our Lady’s College has decorated one of their buildings with huge colourful letters that read “Aspire not to have more but to be more”. I’ve been thinking about this motto a lot, I’d prefer it to be written the other way around “Aspire to be more, not to have more”, but either way it is a fantastic sentiment to ingrain in all of us.

We already have so much. It’s good to remember that. Give me a learned professional and tried and tested drugs over a wing and a prayer any day. We must treasure what we have in this country and look after it, our NHS is worth the fight. This week I have found a new appreciation for my porcelain loo too and my lovely clean bathroom. And I’m very glad I get to drive past Our Lady’s sign everyday to remind me to be better.

If we all do our best to be more, just think what wonders we can accomplish!

Toilet twinning our toilet

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