16 years ago this week I was lying on a bed in the intensive care unit of Liverpool University hospital. My face looked as if somebody had just exploded a bomb in the middle of my head. Against great odds, I was still alive after some of the most complex surgery that is possible.
These days, I regularly find myself carrying out a review of each day. In a busy life, it appears to be a little mechanism that has evolved to help me keep some kind of check on progress, or otherwise. A daily instrument to help me impose some order on an often hectic schedule.
Many people have asked me what goes through your head in the middle of an extreme cancer battle. Where did I find the resolve to keep going when everything looked so dark? And did I take anything from the experience that I still apply in my life today?
After working in the private sector for over 25 years, I took up a senior position in the public sector last year, so I guess this article was always going to be written.
My assessment of both systems.
Could we not have agreed from the outset that we do not kill each other?