Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Teenagers

Aside

They have had a terrible press recently and it is very worrying. Even here, at the week-end, a man was found dead in the town and two teenagers are in custody.

To redress the balance let me tell you about two girls. I feel especially proud of them because they are both pupils at my old grammar school.

My school news letter tells me that both Nansi and Claire have been awarded a Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Award which is for young people who show outstanding courage when faced with serious medical conditions.

Nansi has cystic fibrosis and has to have physiotherapy before school each day and at the end of each day has to do 4-5 hours of sport. She takes 50 pills every day and another 15 pills each morning to ensure she has the right vitamins.

Outside of school she plays netball, hockey and handball for three teams and excels at horse- riding, representing Greater Manchester in dressage, show- jumping and showing classes. She spends spare time raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust has organised a staff hockey match, arranged school cake sales and street collections.

Now that she is sixteen, the CF Trust has asked her to give personal advice to families newly affected by cystic fibrosis.

Nansi was a member of one of the two netball teams that broke the Guinness World Record for endurance netball by playing for over 55 hours. Six hours before the end of the attempt she collapsed on the floor in agony and had to be carried off. However she said she could not let her team down and staggered back on and ended up on crutches for two weeks.

I’ll tell you about Claire tomorrow.

8 comments:

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

It's true about teens getting bad press, only the bad ones sell news. There are vibrant, positive teens out there, doing stuff many grown-ups can't handle.

Recently I met one of my cousins' two teen children from the US, they're sweet, bright, funny, entertaining. And here I was fearing that they would be like the teens I see on tv.

Say hi to Nansi, tell her it's all the way from a lil country in St. America :-)

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Inspirational, isn't it? And it renews ones faith in the courage and tenacity and heart of young people! Most touching, Pat.

Kim Ayres said...

Teenagers have been the scourge of society at least since the days of the Teddy Boys - then there were Mods and Rockers, Hippies, Punks etc. I'm mean, do you remember the state of the "youth of today" when the Sex Pistols were being banned from the charts?

Teenagers are what teenagers have always been - some are wonderful people, some should be killed as soon aspuberty hits, and some are intensely annoying but grow out of it.

But it is always good to hear of inspirational people, whatever their age :)

Anonymous said...

Nansi sounds extraordinary. What an uphill battle for her, and how well she's fighting it.

Pat said...

GG: I'm really looking forward to my teenagers coming soon.

Naomi: there was a photograph and they both are blonde with happy smiling faces.

Kim: I do remember the boys going through that intensely annoying stage and just when they grew out of it and become adorable again they leave home.

Sam: I'm sure both girls have strong supportive parents.

Anonymous said...

How's your dizziness going now, Pat? I hope it's gone along with the January blahs.

Pat said...

Sam: thanks for asking. I had three days clear but then had a touch last night. I'm mainly hibernating so expect to be fine soon:)

Omykiss said...

Hi pi, thanks for dropping by earlier via michele. I agree with the theme that only bad news makes the headlines.

It's good to be reminded that there's a lot of good out there ....