I am writing this entry for my own benefit, to remind myself that even though the world seems like it's going to hell, there are still people out there who are the very antithesis of everything that's bad....please don't feel you have to read it, because it's a very long story. Xx


One of our customers collapsed yesterday just as he was stepping into the pharmacy.  We all ran to help him, but he was drifting in and out of consciousness, his breathing was erratic, and we realised he'd had a heart attack.

From nowhere, a passer-by stopped to help. She was a nurse and quickly took charge, monitoring the gentleman's pulse, checking for broken bones, and making him comfortable as he lay half in, half out of the doorway.

I phoned for an ambulance, and my afternoon girl ran to the local medical practice for a defibrillator and a doctor.  In the 5 minutes it took her to come back with both, our old gentleman had stopped breathing, the nurse had begun CPR, and the ambulance arrived. Five minutes.....that was all.

For as long as I live, I will never forget how incredible our emergency services were. The paramedics worked for an hour, trying to resuscitate Mr E, even though his 93 year old heart had given up working on its own. The police who attended were wonderful, constantly checking that we, the distraught staff, were OK, and the GPs from our local practice were the calm centre of the maelstrom.

I have never seen someone die before. I have never witnessed such kindness from strangers before.
I have never encountered such professionalism before.

But if I ever again see the bloke who stepped over a dying man to collect his prescription (and then rolled his eyes at me when I said we didn't have it and no, I couldn't call his surgery because I was actually on the phone to emergency services) I'll never have used such language before!

Rest in peace Mr E. It was a privilege to be with you at the end, in the company of some extraordinary saints....