5,500 dead in a day

Every day, according to the book I've just finished, 5,500 people die of AIDS/HIV in Africa.  I feel far better informed around the politics, economics, functions and everyday face of AIDS having read 28 Stories which details 28 different people's stories of living with or working with AIDS and HIV from around the African continent.  What is apparent time and time again however is the cost to access ARVs for ordinary people.  These drugs are incredibly expensive - even the generic versions which are more widely available - compared to the wages paid to individuals. 

It's interesting to read this book on the back of my awareness around homeopathy and AIDS.  I'm aware of end stages of ARV medication where patients are discharged from hospital as there is nothing else can be done. Effectively sent home to die.  It's not that there's a lack of compassion, it's merely there is no other route.  Homeopathic remedies, well chosen remedies can give another option - people who've had no chance to survive have been back in the fields 6 months later - working, supporting their families, alive-alive-oh.

Homeopathy for Health in Africa are working in Tanzania providing free care to patients and working within hospital settings as well as in rural clinics.  Their work is largely self funded and with help from donations. (Help me with my little donation here!) Challenges are many, determination is intense although I can only imagine the job satisfaction from cases such as this one:

Lady age 39
She is an upright proud and awake person, AIDS diagnosed  2006 but much longer, maybe 18 years.
Kids infected from her at birth
CD4 last year 340, ARV since 2006
Husband ran away when he found she is infected, she is very angry and sad about this (of course she got infected by him, he is now dead). Angry brother took away all their things after husband died (common in these situations, but deadly, this is stigma). Now the house is falling down no one take care of it.
No appetite, pain in under sternum, peeling lips.
Sleep is poor , worries about kids, there is no money to feed them.
Pain joints knees and elbows
Losing weight, used to be 68kg now 56kg.
Before ARV she suffered from diarrhoea, itching skin, eruptions and itch
Her vision is poor since AIDS
Feels very weak, tired legs so can’t work.
Headache temples and vertex
Occasional flu and malaria (flu can kill AIDS patients easily)
Has mouth fungal problem ulcer on lip,tongue black base white coating, chest tight with cough, chilly, back pain lumbar.
Dream in mortuary, washing dead bodies,dream chased lion and leopard, dream going to be marrie.
She would like to be like a lion strong and fast, if she was like that no one could hurt her.
She would like to kill her brother if she was a lion, for taking their stuff.

Remedy given.

Follow-up one month

Sleep much better, bad dreams gone
Eating better, weight up
She is feeling stronger
Continue remedy

Follow-up 2 months

Remedy helped a lot
They checked her blood and there is no virus!!!!!! Doctors baffled
Since then no malaria
Strong, can work better
Not tired any more, feels  very  strong, ulcer is improved.
Appetite much better, weight now 59 , up 3 kg.
Peeling lips better, joints better, vision is very much better sees very well, no mouth fungus.

This is just one case, there are many, many more. Few patients can afford the viral load test although CD4 results show vastly positive improvements, and, fundamentally, patients feel well, look better, are stronger and are able to provide for their children, bring in an income and enjoy life again.

Whilst I would love to visit the project really what I feel I need to do at the moment is assist a little with funds where I can.  I'm therefore doing an Olympic distance triathlon to fundraise.  I plan to raise at least £1k and would love it if you felt you could sponsor me.  Even if just every friend I have on facebook sponsored me just £2 I'd be nearly there... Please help with what you can:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley2

With much love and gratitude,

Em x

Running on luck?

I'm engrossed in reading 28 at the moment.  It's 28 people's stories of AIDS in their lives - healthcare workers, truck drivers, wives, children, army workers, nurses, doctors and lots more.  It's making me realise so many things about how lucky I am for so many reasons.  It's also giving me more insight into the world that Jeremy and Camilla Sherr (along with various volunteers) are living in every day.  And making a difference everyday.

I feel a little like my options to help are limited with what I can do from here in the UK so as a consequence of this I've decided to run my Olympic distance Triathlon as a fundraiser.  My aim is to raise £1k to help Homeopathy for Health in Africa carry out it's amazing work.

My warm up event went well and I really enjoyed it (I think on each of the event pics I've a huge smile and this was a fair reflection of the event) - maybe more pushing = faster = better triathlete but that was never the goal for me.  To complete, survive (in the opposite order of importance) and most of all to enjoy myself. I more than succeeded. And I plan to echo that with my fundraising mission too :)

If you can help at all I'd be so very grateful (and I know the project would be even more so).  It's such an overused phrase to say that every little makes a difference but it really, really does.  Just here to donate...

With massive love and gratitude in advance,

Em x

'Can I have food today?'

Yesterday, feeling massively grateful for all I have, the choices available to me and the questions I don't even need to ask such as 'can I have food today?', puzzling over my random act of kindness that I felt inspired to make (do I leave a £5 note somewhere with an anonymous note? a £1 coin outside school for a child to find and treasure....?) it came to me.  I would donate a haircut. Obviously to Homeopathy for Health in Africa.  A haircut might not be the most useful thing for them right now (although you never know) but I would give the cost of a haircut to the NGO.

So then today browsing on facebook I see Camilla (who heads up the project with her husband Jeremy Sherr) posted that the centre they were just about to open has been robbed and all the furniture taken.  My memory was jogged and one (price of) haircut got donated.

Just to let you know what moved me so much, my friend Naomi who's out with the project at the moment writes...

'Before we could get going on the third chap, we were told about a boy who used to go to the school but had not been since August then came this week and it was apparent that he was critically ill. He had come because each day he is at home on his own; his mother goes out to earn 80p a day picking rice, and he knew he was getting worse. His little friend got in the car and showed us the way.

As we drove along the dusty, cratered roads there was a ravine along one side where men were digging out the clay. Further on we drove through a brick works where the clay was being combined with straw, then baked in stacks to make bricks. All the houses were made of these bricks which we were told are 12p each compared to the other bricks which are 60p each. I suspect that the local bricks are less durable.

The house was a small brick building with a tin roof and old pieces of cloth covering the windows and separating out a sleeping are and cooking area from the sitting room. The boys sat on a sofa and we crowded in, recognising that this was not a jolly trip but a serious attempt to save a life. The boy had a swollen face, ankles and feet. The belly button protruded from a distended stomach, reminding me of the starving children we are shown on TV. It was clear he was malnourished and there was nothing in the house; a remedy might stop the vomiting and diarrhoea, but he still needed food to live. After clinic Jeremy went and bought food for him – the charity www.homeopathyforhealthinafrica.org does not have money for this, but what else can you do?

These children are on the Edge of Life in so many ways.'

So if giving up something might be an option - it's popular to talk about a cup of coffee (I can't do that as I've never started on coffee), or even just donating what would be loose change in your pocket, I know there's so many people who would appreciate it so very much.  This project inspires me in so many ways. Naomi's blog gives much much more insight than I ever could - have a browse here.

I thank you for reading this,

Much love,

Em x

Open water swimming and great big fish...

Well, after last years saying no to the Great North Swim this year it was a big YES (well probably quite a timid, shy one really but it's a far more confident one now)!

Open water swimming became June's challenge on my 13 challenges (or playtimes) leading up to 2013 and has been a lot of work, learning, discoveries - and fun!  I thought I'd like the concept but not the reality (the cold, huge fish and enormous weeds bothered me) but it turns out although I'm a little bit less happy with the weeds, I've not seen an enormous fish in either Coniston Hotel lake or Malham Tarn as yet and I can deal with the cold.  I'm raising money for Homeopathy for Health in Africa - of course - who are doing such incredible life changing work in Tanzania.  They work largely with people who have HIV and AIDS, using Homeopathy alongside the conventional medication their patients are on.  So far I have been pledged over half of my £500 target and it would be wonderful to smash through this altogether.  If you'd like to sponsor me the link here will take you to the page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley1

Reflecting last night whilst swimming and looking back over the time since I started this mission back on the 29th November, there's been a whole lot of 'I can''s going on - I have learnt lots of new skills, revisited old ones, become more adept or at least less rusty at others.  It's been an incredibly positive experience which I would recommend to anyone and am so very pleased I started it. 

Next stop T'ai Chi July and roller blading August - eeeeekkkk!!

Catwoman, Cakes and Lakes

1/2 way through my 13 for 13 - the real challenge on Tuesday..
....maybe anyway. I've been told that the nearby lake may be open for open water swimming in which case I will be trekking up there with wetsuit, which poses a question - do you wear it in the car to drive there and look a little odd? or does one wrestle ones way into it upon arrival at the side of a cold lake? Who knows - and, faced with the prospect of getting into the cold lake - do I care if I drive up there looking like catwoman on her way to do, well whatever cat woman does? Or at least look as though I'm trying to look like cat woman - not sure she had quite the love of cakes that I do.

So at half way through the challenge I set for myself back in November last year, I'm about to face my most challenging one so far.  Part of the fun has been a saying yes to life really, playing with new things, trying stuff out and working more on things I've always wanted to give myself time to do.

 But open water swimming? Out of nowhere it came (or really I'd said no to it last year and it just came back again to tempt me). I love the idea and find it really appealing, but the reality? Tell you after Tuesday... my first outdoor session in preparation for my Great North Swim on the 23rd June.

If you'd like to sponsor me it's easy to do through Homeopathy Action Trust which means that Homeopathy for Health in Africa can get the Gift Aid on any money you donate too.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley1

 Coniston Lake on a cooler day (I hope it's warmer than this anyway!!)

My 13 for 13 so far
December - knitting
January - mindful meditation
February -pole dancing
March -  sewing
April - photography
May - crochet
June - open water swimming

Still to come yoga/pilates, guitar, roller blading, cooking/baking and two spaces to see what comes along...