Letter from Jane Smith

Dear Christine

What a pleasure it was to talk with you on the telephone today. I am convinced that Trevor would have wanted me to explain as best I could, the impact your wonderful organisation, MediCinema, had on his last few months on earth.

Trevor was a proud man. Proud of his family, his lifestyle, his achievements, his appearance and a man, through and through, loving manly pursuits and values. He was a big, strong, very protective man. It did not sit well on his muscled shoulders to be reduced to a nonentity sitting in a wheelchair.

The illness that struck him down, Motor Neurone Disease, was most particularly cruel. He was entombed in a body which slowly, but surely, stopped working, but we had continued to live our nomadic life in our converted fire tender, plucking as much joy and laughter from our daily life as humanly possible. Then he found himself being thoroughly checked out on the Lane Fox Ward in St. Thomas' Hospital. He was completely terrified; he desperately needed all the encouragement and morale boosting he could get. Then along comes Mark with the wackiest suggestion,

'Would you like to go to the cinema tomorrow?'
'How can I? I'm in hospital!' rather tetchily from Trevor thinking this man is barking!
'We have our own cinema,' he said proudly.
'So! I still can't go; I can't get out of this bed!'
'We take you down in the bed!' So there.
'What's on?' Trevor now suddenly interested.
'Oh, just the preview of James Bond's Die Another Day!'

Trevor metamorphosed into a small boy on Christmas Eve: big eyes, look of expectation combined with awareness that there is magic in the air. He had me check umpteen times with the nursing staff if it was OK for him to go. He sent me down to the cinema. He had me checking times and who else was going. He had me running round in circles and thought of nothing else.

Time came eventually and his hospital bed became a magic carpet as we swept him down the corridor and into the emporium. To make the occasion even more special, Nicholas Grace came over and spoke to Trevor at length. Photos were taken and Trevor felt like royalty. When the lights dimmed and the title song began, tears of happiness and joy streamed down his face. He just could not believe he could experience something so perfect in his poor state of health. He would never have been able to sit through a performance at a normal cinema, he would have been too uncomfortable. To cap it all he was watching, not just any old film, but his favourite of favourites, James Bond, and a preview no less!! He never forgot that afternoon and managed to tell as many people about it as would listen. I can safely say, and he would definitely agree, it was the highlight of his life after he became so ill.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving Trevor this most wonderful opportunity and for goodness sake keep up the good work!

Yours faithfully

Jane