I only wish my girl had been a lucky survivor
I’M SORRY Tessa Cunningham feels upset when people say she is ‘lucky’ to have survived cancer (Femail). But I think she lucky because I am suffering appalling grief at having lost my daughter Emma to cancer eight weeks ago, after a three-year battle in which she endured a double mastectomy and hysterectomy, cancer in her spine and finally in her brain.
She leaves behind two children aged five and six. My husband and I helped care for her and looked after her children throughout the hospital treatment. Now, after the pain of seeing her suffer, we have the agony of losing her. During her illness, Emma rarely complained. She joked about her new bras and wigs – she lost her hair twice – and said she felt like a drag queen.
Her positivity was infectious and she amazed doctors by surviving long beyond their expectations.
A few weeks before she died, she looked in the mirror – at her scars and bruises, moon-shaped face, bloated neck and stomach – and said: ‘Mum, I don’t care what I look like. I just want to live, but could I be that lucky?’
She used the word ‘lucky’, so I think Tessa should feel lucky her cancer didn’t spread, she has gone on living and seen her children grow up, because Emma won’t.
Mrs B. HALL, Faversham, Kent.
Suspend Brexit talks
THERE comes a time in any negotiation when, if one side is obdurate (not to mention arrogant), the other leaves the table until sense prevails, and talks can start again on the basis of equality. This is the point the UK has reached with the EU.
The Mail reported that MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel, former head of the Federation of German Industries, said the EU wants ‘unconditional surrender’ on the so-called divorce settlement – meaning a binding commitment on how much we shall pay, without any guarantee of a fair trade deal.
Continuing negotiations on that basis would take folly to the point of insanity. The UK Government made a fundamental error at the start by not insisting on agreed procedure, gifting EU negotiators the initiative and from then on appearing as a supplicant at the Brussels gate.
It is time to correct that error. Suspend the talks, and tell the EU to come back when it accepts it is dealing with a sovereign government and a majority of the people determined to leave. jiM siLLArs, Former MP and ex-deputy leader of the sNP,
Edinburgh.
Selfish adventurer
HOW selfish can you get? Explorer Benedict Allen heads off on his adventures, fulfilling his wanderlust with no way of being contacted, then goes missing (Mail).
Meanwhile, his poor wife is stuck at home trying to console their three children. Now he has been rescued from the jungle in Papua New Guinea, I hope he decides to stop scaring his family witless and starts acting more responsibly. Mrs GrACE THACKrAY,
Penparc, Ceredigion. WHEN Andrea Leadsom gave a statement to the Commons last week on the progress of the sexual harassment investigation, the House was virtually empty.
Those MPs who were there were fiddling with documents, tablets or mobile phones. Hardly any appeared to be listening.
This is presumably a measure of how seriously MPs take this issue. Compare this indifference with the bellowing and bawling at Prime Minister’s Questions. TErrY MAUNDEr, Kirkstall, W. Yorks.
Green posturing
SO Nicola Sturgeon was in Bonn for a climate change conference.
No doubt she flew – and we will have paid for the tickets. So much for her green footprint.
Crucially, President Trump was not there, so even if Scotland shut down overnight, our effect on the climate would be nothing compared to that of the US.
And Germany is about to miss emissions targets as renewables have not generated enough to lift the country’s reliance on coalfired power stations. joE MCLEAN, Edinburgh.
Lay off OUR Saltire
THE Saltire is not a political symbol and should not be turned into one.
Emma Cowing (Mail) is right that the SNP has tried to use it as its own symbol but this should be resisted – just as any party using the Union flag as its own should be told to lay off. WiLLiAM MCFArLANE, Perth.
Taking a dim view
I AM relieved Leicestershire County Council is reversing its street lighting policy after it was revealed there have been more burglaries in the dark (Mail).
A serious assault took place near my home when the attacker took advantage of street lights being turned off at midnight. But a local councillor insisted this crime had nothing to do with the lighting policy and said there was no reason to leave lights on all night. Now doesn’t he look dim?
DAViD WorsNiP, Market Harborough, Leics.
Man up, parents!
THE sexism fuss about a paediatric surgeon describing a father as ‘manful’ for taking his daughter to a hospital appointment (Mail) is a sad indictment of modern mores.
Reporting such trivia on social media is compulsory for some people, who seek attention with feigned outrage and give not a moment’s thought for the consequences – in this case, the embarrassment of a man who benefits society far more than all the social media contributors put together. ALAN DYsoN, Folkestone, Kent. THE parents who took offence at the word ‘manful’ appear to suffer from extreme hypersensitivity. The consultant simply made a clumsy attempt to engage in lighthearted small talk.
It’s a disgrace an apology has been offered. In future he will have to remember today’s generation had a humour-ectomy at birth.
He can’t win: if he had refrained from social engagement he would have been criticised as surly. Mrs LorrAiNE WYLiE, Bangor, Co. Down.
Prescription for waste
I WAS shocked recently when my GP changed my medication and I tried to return a quantity of unopened drugs to my chemist.
The pharmacist explained that staff were not allowed to take them back once they were issued.
I explained that I hadn’t even opened the boxes and all of the blister packs would still be intact, but he couldn’t take them.
How many millions of pounds are thrown away because of this regulation? It is waste like this that contributes to the NHS’s financial problems.
joHN MCGiLL, Dumfries.