A DEATH TO DIE FOR

RetailAn amazing true life story told with genuine feeling. If you think that serious medical misdiagnoses happen only to other people then this a must read.’On Friday 25th November 2005 Geoffrey Wilding is quietly going about his normal business in the hills of Wales, his life is organized and everything is under control. As he describes it, he took time to ‘look at the wonderful snow covered landscape sparkling in the low winter sunlight which was set out before me, I sat there with the engine running and the heater on and counted my blessings, there are probably only few times in my life that I had been any happier than at this moment.What follows over the next four weeks is every person’s worst nightmare. Within a few days and with the only warning being flu-like symptoms, Geoffrey finds himself in Hereford Hospital, first of all undergoing a series of tests and then being diagnosed with a rare form of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) known as Miller Fisher Syndrome. But worse was to follow; further examinations suggested that a rogue cancer cell had travelled round the body and established itself and lodged on the brain stem. Geoffrey was given a blunt and stark diagnosis. All the symptoms indicated that the cancer was well established and he had only a month to live. The surreal nature of this situation hit Geoffrey like a hammer blow. The beautiful vista of the snow covered Welsh hills in early winter seemed incredibly far away.But, with true courage and determination and the support of his loving family, Geoffrey finds the strength to fight this situation and, eventually, following his transfer to Birmingham Hospital we learn the truth about his medical condition.This book is a wonderfully personal account of a set of circumstances we can only pray will never happen to us. Told in a diary style which gives it a real sense of pace and of life slipping away, it is a compulsive read from beginning to end and as good a personal account as one is likely to encounter in many a long day.