TO ALL THE CHARITIES I SUPPORT
So as everyone should know I am dedicated to each and every one of those on my list, and will carry on supporting them until such time as I need help myself. Due to my wife's condition all I can do is see that each year you have a dahlia to support your charity. So should you send literature asking for a donation I'm afraid this would be out of the question because there are now to many of you - although I will from time to time donate when I see fit. I will also buy Christmas cards, but of course there is a limit - these will be bought on a first come first serve basis so please don't make it any harder by continually sending - I loath the waste when such material has to be binned. While I have your attention might I suggest you ask your web designers to add details of the charity dahlia to your website if possible, and either link it to Just Giving or my website. For those of you that didn't receive the amount of support I'd hoped for I'm sorry, but I did my best. You can't force people to donate that is up to each individual, but it saddened me to think that even people I know didn't take the trouble to look at the charity page - or spare a pound or two - I pray if they need help some time it will be there. The letter to Prince Charles has so far been unanswered which is a pity because I had this crazy notion that the charity dahlias could be seen by a more influential clients.
I have finally found out why I no longer have complete control of messages I send from my brain to my feet - evidently it is a condition known in the trade as Peripheral Neuropathy where nerve cells are damaged through various means - all I hope it doesn't get any worse, or that I have diabetes. Since finding everything I can about this ......... lets call it a complaint for now - because at the moment it's only affecting my balance as I walk. There are no other symptoms, and my upper body strength enables me to do most things, and compensates for the lack of control to the bottom part of the legs. Mind you as in most things - you've got to want to do it, and overcome the thing that's hell bent on holding you back. Knowing all this has made me determined to knock that bottle of Sherry off my weekly Sainsbury's bill - you see alcohol can destroy peripheral nerves as well - so if I want to make ninety four every little helps. However any damage caused enjoying this beverage has probably been done - but who says mind over matter can't reverse the procedure. Talking of damage to the peripheral nerves - another enemy of theirs - I'm told are viruses, and every dahlia man worth his salt knows what viruses can do to the plants that we love. So it figures these little blighters are in ever known organism - including viruses themselves I shouldn't wonder, and to emphasise this I would like tell you a story.
A year or two ago I developed a wart on my right hand index finger, and as it grew a little larger I decided it had to go, and had remembered it could be treated and removed. The very next visit to Boscombe found me asking the pharmacist in Boots could he suggest something suitable. Very soon after I started the treatment the wart diminished in size, and after several weeks decided to give up the ghost all together. Okay wart gone and I was satisfied, but hold on what had happened to the ridges across the nail on my left hand thumb? Because they had also disappeared - had the treatment removed both symptoms? The next time the chiropodist came to our place for Irene's foot care I asked if this was possible? She had no doubt because both were caused by viruses. Next question? Can I have a virus or several that could be causing damage to the peripheral nerves? You will note I have added The Neuropathy Trust to my 2011 charity list.