2023 St Cross Stitchers Hospital

[Mabel Figworthy]

That is good news Carole!

[richardandtracy]

Such good news Carole.

To answer your question about whether we're in a rural area. The answer is yes and no. We are a mile or so from the outskirts nearest big town. However, due to the size of the town, we are considered far from rural, and becoming less rural by the hour.

There seems to be a feeling in government that the whole of North Kent needs to be carpeted with houses, and needs to be converted into a North Kent City. Our local town has planning permission already given for 15,000 extra dwellings and requests are in for another 6000. The average is 39 dwellings per acre, average dwelling floor area of a 3 bedroom dwelling is 700 square feet, price £240k (USD about 270,000). Not big enough to qualify as houses but small enough and tightly packed enough for a stupendous profit for the developer. The current population of the town is 51k, and is expected to double in 15 years. The same for the Borough of 152k people. By 2037 we'll have a population more than Iceland stuffed in the same area as the Rekyavik peninsula.

Other amenities going in, like roads, hospitals, doctors, schools, shops... Well, we've seen one new junior school (age 5-9), one doctor's practice and one £92 million improvement scheme for one problem roundabout (what a stunning waste of money). Nothing else. Already, with the current population, we have less rainfall per head of population in Kent than that notoriously wet country, Egypt. So water supply issues are not insignificant.

Furthermore, this area used to be heavily industrial, with Chatham and Sheerness dockyards employing tens of thousands until the end of the cold war. When they closed, it led to a lot of poverty and short term jobs. Then, to compete many employers started to cut wages as far as possible making for a huge number of minimum wage jobs, entrenching poverty. When those minimum wages were still too high, we had huge, legal, immigration from Eastern Europe, with a number of job agencies (6 IIRC) being prosecuted for only advertising jobs in Polish at below statutory minimum wage. Finally, Brexit came and cut the flood of below minimum wage labour to a trickle, and a majority returned to the EU. The least scrupulous employers have left, often to Poland, the marginally scrupulous have folded, entrenching poverty still further for those remaining. Also, due to a hang over of 40 years poverty, very few people have appropriate skills for the modern day life here.

But London still exists 40 miles away, with it's horrendously high property prices, forcing Londoners to commute from further & further away. They provide an almost insatiable demand for dwellings as cheap as £240k even though many locals can't afford it. Almost nothing inside London larger than a postage stamp exists at double the price. Which is why so many houses are being built.
As for locals getting London jobs... How many people who know what a field, or a tree looks like could abide working there? Almost none. And having a skillset equipping them only for life on the dole, it's very few who can get jobs there. Or afford the first year's commuting Railcard at over £5k/ year.

The depravation indices for the local towns are as bad as anywhere in the UK, and worse than any part of Scotland and Wales much as it pains me to say. And doctor to patient ratio is the worst in England, and getting progressively worse as each new house is completed and occupied.

With official figures showing the area to be so bad, what medical professional in their right mind would move to work in an area like this? They're few and far between, and I have a feeling that what attracts some is the basic premium paid by the NHS per patient because the patient numbers per doctor are so high. I wish our old GP hadn't retired, she was fantastic and really believed in the NHS, rather than numbers on a banker's spreadsheet.

So, to summarise, this area is stuffed. Completely stuffed. As stuffed as somewhere like Detroit was. And because it's the South of England, no-one in power is prepared to provide development aid on a scale equivalent to other parts of England considered to be deprived - it's all too politically toxic.

Right, I have explained my idea of the interlocked problems we have here, so what to do about it? The problem mix seems largely intractable without a large and rapid population reduction. It basically comes down to too many people in too small a space with too little investment for too long, ant to correct that, you need to move the people out. Not really going to happen.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Holy Moley, Richard! I knew it was bad, but didn't realise how bad. I will not include your area when I stereotypically rant about London and the southeast being a huge black hole that sucks everything in!

It astounds me how patient people are in this country...

[Serinde]

That is good news Carole!

Yes, it certainly is excellent news.

[richardandtracy]

Holy Moley, Richard! I knew it was bad, but didn't realise how bad. I will not include your area when I stereotypically rant about London and the southeast being a huge black hole that sucks everything in!

It astounds me how patient people are in this country...

Agreed, the people are not really inclined to be revolting. I put it down to centuries of relative internal peace for the country.

Generally the South of England is well off, and as a whole, so is Kent.
But North Kent with its industrial past is suffering the same post-industrial malaise as industrial towns elsewhere in the country. Even the Kent Coalfield closed, and you know the effect on local communities elsewhere when that happened. The Kent coalfield areas East of Canterbury had similar problems, but Kent's wealthy and therefore OK, isn't it? Then there are additional problems overlaid on top of that down to the proximity of London, which is acting as a huge sink for skilled labour and a source of relatively wealthy commuters wanting to find somewhere less expensive to live but contribute next to nothing to their new home areas. On top of that, with the huge increase in people, has come further pressure on already inadequate infrastructure. During the rush (from 6am to 9.30am and 3.30pm to 6.30pm) you have to assume an average speed of 12mph will be achieved, and one day a week on average you'll be lucky to manage 8mph due to accidents and knock-on gridlock up to 20miles away from the accident.
No, I wish I was joking.
Tracy travels 12.5 miles to work. In the car she almost never makes it in an hour. On a 50cc moped she saves 20 minutes by being able to trickle past the jams. Years ago, before the massive population growth we're seeing, Tracy did the same journey in our 2CV (a car who's lack of speed and acceleration is notorious) in 30 minutes.

The last motorways built were in the 1970's/early 1980's, with 2 lanes each way on the M2 and 3 lanes on the M20, and they go east-west linking the ferry ports to the rest of the country. There are upwards of 3000 trucks a day passing through, mostly on the M20. There are two main dual carriageways north-south linking North Kent City to the motorways. Every other road is a single carriageway or single track lane. To get the 40 miles to the south coast at Lewes, 45 miles from here, I need to allow 2 hours to get there, the roads are so bad. On one trip to collect Orianna from a dig near Lewes, I lost count of the number of speed limit changes just after reaching 100 changes and I was only 6 miles south of Tonbridge Wells. When we drove to Austria in our 2CV in 1994, there were more miles of roadworks in the 40 miles from here to Dover than in the 600 miles from Calais to Austria. The roads are being absolutely hammered by the traffic levels and need constant repairs. When I commuted to West Malling & then Biggin Hill in the early 1990's, I had all of 6 months from five years with no roadworks on my route. Huge fun, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Oh, all told there are 2.4million people in Kent. That's quite a few to be on the roads during the rush...

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Guess I'm not surprised that you are in need of St Cross Stitchers!

[richardandtracy]

To be honest, the traffic goes a long way to explain why I live within walking distance of work. The fact it's the closest engineering firm has also had an influence on why I've stayed with them for so long.

Personally I'd love to live in the south west where my father's family came from & my father currently lives, but Tracy's family is still round here and needing increasing levels of care so it's not possible. Also, I'm not sure if I could cope with the amount of rain now. It took me a couple of years living here before I could even bring myself to leave the house without a raincoat however dry it looked. Now my default is not to have waterproofs unless I have a good reason.
The highlands are so breathtakingly beautiful that it's hard not to go and look at 'Rightmove' on an irregular basis and dream. On the farm my dad had in Devon it was so quiet that it only took a few days to recognise the engine notes of the few vehicles that passed each day. Love to do that again, rather than be concerned when the thunder of distant traffic turns into a low drone because, yet again, nobody's moving.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Yup. I certainly understand. I do a bit of lurking on the Highland Solicitor's Property Centre website myself...

[rcperryls]

Thought I'd give y'all an update. I started radiation treatments yesterday and will be continuing them for a few weeks (16 total sessions). So far so good. Yesterday was a bit longer (1/2 hr) because the technicians needed to make sure (double checking) that they were getting the right area and we had to schedule the next 15 sessions (each one is 15 minutes with only 5 minutes of actual zapping) and I met with the doctor (who I'll see once a week as this goes on). The facility is only 5 minutes from my house so it is really convenient and I am very fortunate for that. I'm told that as it progresses it will probably feel like a sunburn, and it may make me tired, both of which are very manageable side effects. They also assured me that I won't turn into "She Hulk" (that's supposed to be a joke for anyone who is as nerdy as i am and follows the Marvel Comic superheroes).

My sister was here last week (we had tickets to see the play "Aladdin" which was fantastic) and stayed an extra day to come with for my first session, so not a lot of stitching done. Plan to get back to it full steam the rest of this week.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They have been a really important support for me and I truly appreciate it.

Carole

[Roland]

5 minutes away…that’s convenient.

The hospital my mom went to was about a 40 minutes drive. With current traffic it would take even longer.

[richardandtracy]

Carole,

You're really fortunate that you can be treated so close by. I do hope it all goes to plan.

Rooting for you. All the best,

Richard

[fccs]

Carole, I'm glad your first treatment went well and praying for the same for the future ones. You've got this!

And Richard, enjoy reading your descriptions of pretty much everything and what you've said about the growth of Kent is interesting and quite sad. When I lived in California, housing near the bigger, established cities became more and more expensive, so people moved further away where houses were cheaper. Those cities grew and developed, not always in an optimal way, and they became expensive, so people moved even further away. This forced the improving the infrastructure connecting the areas, which made it easier to commute the 30 minutes, so people moved even further away again. The cycle continued and it wasn't uncommon for folks I worked with to have an hour or longer commute (on a good day). And the environment suffers, and the mental wellbeing of people suffers. And it continues.

[Steam.Jo]

16 sessions seems to be standard for radiotherapy. Be thankful you do not have the risk of medical staff strikes at the hospital cancelling sessions as we are currently suffering with in the UK. A friend keeps being told his Prostate radiotherapy session is on potential cancelation because there may be a strike.

Tiredness will be a feature for the next month or so, as your body focuses its energy on repairing the area that they keep radiating. But it is worth it


Is it really 3 months since I had my surgery? I no longer notice it other than trying to remind myself to treat it with some "Bio oil" each day to get the scar to (hopefully) vanish.

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Jo, glad to hear you now hardly notice the after effects of your surgery anymore!

Carole, how wonderful to have the treatment facility so close, and to have your sister's support for your first visit. I hope the "sunburn" won't be too serious, and the fatigue remains at dealable-with levels

[Serinde]

My MIL had much the same treatment some years ago. Be aware that their idea of "sunburn" is probably different than yours (it certainly was in her case), and ask what creams or ointments are best to be used to soothe the skin. But this sounds as easy and convenient as it could possibly be, and I trust it'll all go well.

[rcperryls]

Update: Started my third and last full week of radiation yesterday. 10 down and 6 to go. I have had a much easier time than I expected but since each treatment builds on the last, this week may be different. I have a very good lotion that the dermatologist recommended for my normally very dry skin which I've been using so I'm sure that has helped. So far I have had sunburns that were much worse than what I have now. I have experienced some of the increased fatigue but I think the only thing that has been effected is that I haven't done much stitching. Can't blame my stitchy bug for staying away. I am thinking of looking for a "thank you" pattern to stitch for the radiation technicians who have been sooooooo caring and friendly and made this a much easier course than it could have been.

Carole

[Steam.Jo]

Well done Carole, you are over half way so you are the home run

I think that looking for a nice Thank you chart to make for the radiation technicians is an excellent idea.

Jo

[richardandtracy]

It would be a really nice thing to do for them.

It might give them a wry smile if you could find 'Glow-in-the-dark' thread. Something like this.. https://www.amazon.com/New-brothread-Lu ... s9dHJ1ZQ==
Or DMC Light Effects E940 is it?

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

That would add a certain something to any card!!

Carole, I hope it all continues to go smoothly for you.

[fccs]

That's great news, Carole. And I like the glow in the dark thread idea.