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SIMON JAMES BRUNTON
19th July 1982 - 18th April 1998
Not sure why Vince looks so shocked.....but Simon is still smiling!
Friends
People would often say that they didn't know how I stayed so cheery, Ha! between Vince and Simon there was never a dull moment,
they were always playing pranks on people, also I feared for my sanity too much to give in to everything. Anyway, after what
Simon had been through and what Vince was going through, what right had I to complain about how I was feeling?
It is said that every cloud has a silverlining, well the silver lining in this case was meeting 'The Hamblys'.
Gary and Tania were a couple who had brought their two year old daughter, Katie-Rose, into the Medical Centre in May '96,
they also had two other daughters, Kristyne and Kimberly. They, like us, had come into hospital for a 10-day stay and ended up
staying months because of complications. It certainly wasn't 'friendship at first sight', because we took an instant dislike to them
for 'stealing' one of our comfy chairs! We had so little control over what was happening to us, that we became very protective of our
little space and these 'newcomers' came along and immediately stole our chair! Oh, how we laugh about it now! Gary is always telling
people about the woman they met in hospital who gave them the 'evil eye'! He has since admitted that he knew how I felt when,
a few weeks later, someone 'stole' the pillow off of his bed!
Another little Hero and our special friend....Katie-Rose
Seriously though, we doubt whether we could have come through this whole nightmare if it hadn't been for them. They have always been
there for us, as we have for them, especially the night that Katie-Rose was in theatre and not expected to survive.
Friendships made in times of such despair are stronger than most. Gary and Tania are still a constant support to us and are the only
people we can talk to about everything because they KNOW what we have been through. After all, you are not going to 'live' with someone
for 3 months without getting to know one another!
We met many more people during our 6-month-stay in hospital, each one special in their own way. However hard you tried not to become attached
to them, you couldn't help it and each time we lost someone dear, it made it all the more difficult for us to believe we could win our battle.
We were determined to put on a brave face for Simon, that was what he needed to see. Whatever our doubts and fears, he needed to believe that
we believed we could win this battle and return to the life we knew before.
We never gave up believing that things could return to the way they were
Two other young ladies that held a special place in our hearts were Carly and Leanne. We would see them on their frequent trips into hospital for treatment.
Leanne gave Simon a baseball cap to add to his collection. He'd arrived in hospital wearing one and hung it on the end of his bed, people thought he was
collecting them, so they would often bring one in for him. When he left hospital he had 17 baseball caps! Carly and Simon were very similar in lots of ways,
they were both crazy about Michael Jackson, both of them were in wheelchairs and had pretty poor eyesight, but that didn't stop them sitting opposite one
another 'boxing'! It was Carly's second time around, her tumour had returned and she was having to have more treatment, but this didn't stop her from doing
lots of fundraising for the Children's Brain Tumour Research Fund.
In August we were actually allowed to start going home at weekends, if Simon was healthy enough. We had become really 'hospitalized' and couldn't get back
into the routine of having to cook our own meals and do our own shopping etc. We would rather spend our time with Simon and Amy, than making meals,
so we lived on various take-outs and quick meals. As long as Simon and Amy were OK, then everything else could wait. We'd spent so long in hospital that
we were now going to try and get out and have some fun!
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