Bridget Reilly at Charing Cross Hospital.

I'm posting a couple of pictures from the Radiotherapy department at Charing Cross Hospital - I'll be there tomorrow, all being well.

It's my last session, I'm not sorry - I've been out of action all weekend recovering from the first four.

Unfortunately, my car is now off the road and we've got a fairly tortuous journey to make by public transport, which I'm not looking forward to at all.

Also, I haven't been able to renew my internet security on time and this may take me 'off air' for a while.

These two pictures are of lithographs supplied by The Imperial College healthcare Charity Art Collection.

They are by Bridget Reilly, who was famous in the 1960's for creating 'Op-Art'; pictures made up of tiny black and white tiles in painstaking, intricate patterns.

Some of these created optical illusions; colours where there weren't any or even movement.

Years later, Reilly had a holiday in Venice and experienced an epiphany in St. Marks square. It had been raining and the ancient cobble stones reflected the bright colours of the Doge's Palace.

Ever since she has used coloured tiles to make her patterns like this one which is a favourite of mine;

This one works in a bigger room but I don't like it so much; 

I'm glad they are there though.

The Art Fund has had a long relationship with the artist - she has been very generous to the group of five hospitals it covers.

Two years ago when I first broke my back I had to make a hard journey by car and train to St. Mary's Hospital - using a walking frame through rush hour.

No fun!

I'd hoped to see one of her murals there but it wasn't where my scan was and I wasn't well enough to explore.

She has made three separate murals over the years - filling three corridors with bright stripes of radiant colour. I may get a chance to see them one day, in the meantime here's a picture taken from the internet.



I'll see you when I see you.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

To the Ends of the Earth with Norman Akroyd R.A.

What an amazing, if austere sight;

At the entrance to Charing Cross Hospital is an array of etchings by Norman Ackroyd R.A. donated to the Imperial College Healthcare Art Collection by the artist himself. In 2017 they will be moving on to St. Mary's and Hammersmith Hospitals by turns.

Atkinson has drawn some amazing views of the barren outposts of the Irish and Scottish Coasts and Islands.

This amazing and gaunt picture is of 'Stac An Armin' on St. Kilda, a very remote group of islands on the furthermost edge of the Outer Hebrides.

It could be the ends of the earth.

A couple of years ago Akroyd was filmed by BBC 2 to show how etchings are made from his London studio. This usually follows a fairly precarious spell sketching on a boat on wild seas before returning to London and carving the images onto copper plates which are then differentially acid washed to create the shading and detail before the printing process begins.

So it was nice to be face to face with the pictures themselves; pictures of wild and windy outposts, of borderlands and frontiers, literally of the ends of the earth, of World's End.

Meanwhile I had a really, really painful couple of days which (of course) had to coincide with two days of hospital appointments and chemotherapy.

I got yet more bad news - I think I would have been more upset if I hadn't been in such pain. The journeys were a struggle.......as if I'd just made a dramatic boat trip to the Outer Hebrides themselves.

So I had a bleak couple of days.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Necker Island.

I was back at Charing Cross Hospital this week and it didn't go so well; aside from waiting nearly two hours after we were due to be seen and watching people with later appointments than me going in first.....hurrrumphf.....the third and (as far as I know) last chemo isn't working.

We were both fed up - apart from anything else the weather was lovely. We both felt we might as well have just done the blood test, skipped the doctors appointment  and then gone out for the day.

It's just rain from now on!

The chemo has slowed things down but it didn't come up with the goods. I had another dose on Friday and (all going well) the last dose in three weeks time but I've been working my way through the chemo options for a solid 9 months now.

Each time when I should have got a result and a break I had to start the next one straight away. It's been tough, especially as I could have got about 18 months out of all this. 

Unfortunately, it didn't work out like that.

I did enjoy a new display of art at the front entrance; an art show for staff of the hospital organised by The Imperial College Art Charity.

There were lots of different works on show but I particularly liked this artists work;

He's W. James White from Charing Cross Trauma and Orthopaedics and I'm guessing he's a consultant because each of his pictures is from somewhere very exotic.

There's 'Storm Coming - Antigua', 'Ngorogoro crater' - Tanzania, and  Necker Island.

I'm very envious of those trips but I like his abstraction and he quotes some of the modern art influences I've enjoyed too.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Path to Sennan.

This picture is 'Path to Sennan' by Richard Tuff and it's on one of the walls of my Chemotherapy unit - I was back there yesterday for yet another dose.

It went well - I now have an array of pre-meds to stop me going into anaphylactic shock and they work. Also the dose has been slowed right down and that helps too.

Unfortunately, we drove up (public transport is a struggle these days) and I went over the time limit for my disabled parking badge by about 45 minutes.

Lucky me - no ticket this time! 

Sennan Cove is in Cornwall, a couple of miles from Lands End, at the magical, mysterious and still Cornish end of the county. The next parish, as they used to say, was in America.

I was there just over 5 years ago on my last ever holiday, camping at Botallock just a few miles away.

I was sleeping in my £11-99p Lidls tent and every night I swore I was going home in the morning as I mopped up the water that was driving in horizontally.

Then each morning.......it was wonderful and I stayed on.

Glad I did now, I never realised I wouldn't get another chance.

On the last morning my mobile phone rang at about 7am and then completely died forever. I thought it was probably work but I couldn't be sure it wasn't my Mum, who I should not have left alone as she wasn't able to look after herself properly even back then.

I spent a very unhappy few hours racing from one broken phone box to another, to pubs where the public phone had just been removed to the point where I realised I'd have to leave early and get home as quick as I could.

It was work, of course and the end result was I missed a precious last day. Who knows, I might have stopped off at Sennan Cove for a walk and a pasty.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

1981!

Yesterday I was back at Charing Cross Hospital and I didn't think I was going to make it.

I've been having really serious problems with my hip this week; it's been very painful indeed. I actually thought I'd damaged something (it's still possible!).

But I'm beginning to think that it may have got damaged in my operation last week; when I woke up my canula had been ripped out of one hand and a new one put in my other one. I had a cut inside my lip and what a lot of blood there was!

It felt like I'd been through a boxing match.

I'm now on painkillers which is unlike me.

Anyway, it didn't go well or badly at hospital - I'm back tomorrow for my second cycle of chemotherapy.

Well at least I'm still in the ring.

This is Robyn posing by a picture from The Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection which just happens to be when she was born;

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoputstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The pool of London.

I made it back to Charing Cross Hospital - this is one of many Tube and Railway posters from the 1930's that are on the corridor near the in patient pharmacy where I leave my used needles every month for destruction.

It shows The Port of London as it was back then - the river lined with cranes and ships being unloaded or loaded.

I need more tests; next week it's scans.

If it's really bad they'll start Chemotherapy right away, if it isn't too bad they'll give me a rest and it will be January.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Reaching out for the impossible.

Well that was a struggle - up at 0515, the taxi got us to Hospital at 0720 for an 0800 appointment and nothing happened - all day. They were really, really busy.

I had the operation at 1600 - so I went 24 hours without food and 19 without water. I'm not even sure that was necessary.

I'd have loved to post a selfie of the big screen during the operation but I don't think it would have gone down very well with the surgeon.

I had keyhole surgery on my kidney and it was OK in the end - I have no idea how they made sense of the fuzzy pictures.

It hurt more than I expected and it's funny; I've known a couple of people who were stabbed and they said they didn't notice it at all. In spite of all the painkillers....I noticed it, it felt like I was stabbed and beaten up, which in a way I was.

I don't need an expert to know that this is the start of a long, hard struggle - at the very least there's another operation in 6 months time and possibly worse when they've worked out what happened.

While we were waiting I noticed this amazing sculpture on the stairwell, courtesy of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection.

I love the way the climber is impossibly reaching for the light;

I couldn't find any reference to the artist but I'm sure I've seen this before somewhere - maybe I've used the staircase in the past.

These are real carabiners;

I think it's good that a hospital should be encouraging everyone to think of reaching out for the impossible, it works for me.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me; helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Update;

Robyn went back and found the plaque for the statue of the 'Climber' I posted about yesterday.

It's by David Mach and is called 'Elevator 2006' and was funded by The National Lottery and The Arts Council.

It was commissioned to brighten up the stairwell when The Riverside Wing was refurbished and the artists description of what he was trying to achieve is roughly as I said but I haven't been able to find a downloadable version I can post here.

It will seem a dream; Juan Cruz at Charing Cross Hospital.

Juan Cruz's lettering paintings are growing on me - once again this image is courtesy of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection. I featured some more of his images last month - and that all means I was back at Charing Cross Hospital.

Blood test? That was worse again and by a lot more than I would have liked. Cancer is unrelenting. 

Dr Feelgood's being fairly cool about it; I still feel OK and I'm doing things so she's still keeping me on the same meds until I get ill. Then it's Chemo.

Another month! That's about as good as it gets.

We had a September to remember, now we'll have to do the same to October.

That may be a bit harder.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

It is.

 

 

"It is" is a print by Juan Cruz and it's one of a small series exhibited by the wonderful Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection at Charing Cross Hospital.

 

Cruz is alive and well and living in London - these prints are part of a recent period when he was exploring lettering and forms.

 

So this one is "The urinal is not an ashtray" (I think);

 



So true.

I was back at hospital, seeing Dr Feelgood's henchman.

I was expecting my blood test to be bad and it was. It could have been worse though.

On the other hand, my scan was good - nothing has spread any further.

So, Dr Feelgood is winging it - no Chemo for another month.

Yay!

We came out and told each other that September is going to have to be good.

September is going to have it's lapels felt, it's going to get a little slap.

September is going to  have to make a real effort......isn't it?

Then it rained again.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

And to make it worse, The Runnymede Eco Village were at the High Court and were refused leave to appeal the eviction order - they have 48 hours left.


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43000 Thanx!

43000!
44000!
45000!
46000!
47000!

Wow, that was a rush! I don't expect that to happen so soon again.

Once again, my thanks to everyone for keeping my Blog alive; every view is important.

On to 50,000!

These are pieces by Derek Boshier, a 'Pop' artist from the 1960's who was quite anti establishment. These are recent works and it looks like he has mellowed a bit these days. 

They are still very interesting and are all from the front entrance of Charing Cross Hospital. They have been put there by The Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection which begs, borrows, steals or if absolutely necessary buys art to make the local hospitals in the group more bearable. Believe me, it makes a difference. 

I previously posted one of Boshier's works back in March - these are the rest. They are growing on me.

 

 

I was back there for the result of my last blood test and another 'Wolverine' infusion for my spineless spine.

 

The blood test was OK - up by a hairsbreadth but not enough to worry about until next month comes around.

 

It means I'm OK for July and that probably means I'm OK for August too - even if it all goes dramatically wrong from now on.

 

So that is definitely worth celebrating!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 



I'm boring again.

I can't say I like this sculpture outside Charing Cross Hospital. I normally find something I love from the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection - it's a joy.

I never really liked this one; you'd probably need to be a medical student to appreciate it.

Nowadays, I just wish my spine looked like this.

Anyway, I had my monthly visit yesterday and no one was there - I'm boring again.



It's been three months since I had the result of a blood test and it was going wrong on me back then.

Soooooo, this wasn't exactly something I was looking forward to. The last few times I've seen my consultant, a Macmillan cancer nurse (gulp!) and a couple of students.

Today just a registrar - the result was OK!

I can't get used to all this - I spent two years when everything went wrong.

Oh are we going to enjoy June!

We are making plans.

There are exciting things happening.

Then I ended up spending the rest of the day at hospital, waiting for tests and this;

 

 

It all took so long that I ended up on the bus in the school rush and had to stand for a while. I was in agony.

 

Then when I got back to the car we were into the rush hour.

 

Nightmare - I was exhausted.

 

But I'm OK for a month and maybe even a summer - who knows?

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutastpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

Just in case things go quiet here.

Tuesday and I had to struggle in to Charing Cross Hospital to see Dr Feelgood. This is a new piece of art from the entrance hall. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any details of the piece; I was in a lot of pain.

And I mean a lot of pain.

There was good and bad news.

The bad news is that for 4 months I've had a collapsed vertebrae, which explains why I've been in such pain. It's nice to know that I haven't gotten soft in my old age. I'm going to need an operation.

The good news is that the scan from January shows that my tumours have retreated, which is why my vertabrae collapsed.

I'm not cured or anything like that.

I'm not better.

In fact the figures look like it's getting worse again.

So let's not get carried away but I'm not going anywhere just yet. Which in my world of bad news is good news.

The problem is that my back is becoming really serious. If I need an operation soon (I do, it's just whether they give me one) this Blog may go quiet for a while.

If that happens, don't give up on me - I'll make it back!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Oh by the way....I've just done a bit of gloating on my seriously boring Blog - Bart's Health Trust has just been placed in 'Special Measures' due to problems at that group of hospitals. it's something I highlighted TWO years ago; have look.
helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

No Nix Pix yet.

Last night we were lucky enough to have two prized tickets for the New York Knicks vs The Milwaukee Bucks, NBA Basketball game.

We only got to bed at about 1-30 but believe me I'm not complaining.

Except that I had an early start today - had to go for a scan.

Gulp!

I should have put up my pix of the nix but I'm just too tired.

When I was on the Tube going up to Hammersmith I took a quick look at my letter to check the times. I hadn't realised I should have been going to St. Mary's Hospital not Charing Cross.

EEK!

Luckily I was too early and that gave me time to get there on time. It was a real struggle.

The picture is from one of the corridors in the hospital and is by Eduardo Paolozzi, a pioneer of 'Pop art' and one time tutor to Stu Sutcliffe, the fifth Beatle and John Lennon's friend .

He was a gifted artist and came to Paolozzi's attention before he sadly died of a brain haemorrage.

It's called '52 Pieces for Orchestra (1975) and is provided by The Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection which provides art to the hospitals connected to Imperial College.

The Nix Pix will go up tomorrow when I've had a rest.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Shopping for Shoes; Lisa Milroy 2003

 

 

 You wouldn't expect me to spend a day at Charing Cross Hospital without going on and on about the art displays provided by The Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection?

 

This is Lisa Milroy's 2003 piece; 'Shopping for Shoes'.

 

It's like a 'storyboard' or even a strip of film from the movies.

 

Here's one of the individual 'cells';

 

  

 

 

 It's really charming.

 

It's just someone who obviously likes.....buying shoes;

  

 

 I could go on and on about it but I guess the point is that in a hospital where tragedy and sadness is all around you, it's really nice to be reminded of the ordinary, simple pleasures of life;

 

  

 

 

As I was leaving I spotted another canvas by the same artist but I'll do that one next month!

  

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 









A window onto Charing Cross Hospital.

 

 

I'm posting this fantastic stained glass window which dominates the entrance hall at Charing Cross Hospital. It's huge - I can only show you part of it.

 

As you probably know from reading this Blog, Charing Cross is one of three London hospitals that benefit from the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection; they beg, steal, borrow or if absolutely necessary, buy art to make these sad places more bearable.

 

I was at Oncology....again. I was there back in October and the previous month's blood test was bad. With my cancer, things don't improve - I don't get 'blips'. There are no happy endings.

 

So I wasn't exactly looking forward to going in this week for my 'October ' result.

 

It was OK.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out celebrating....this isn't going away. But I got yet another month I didn't expect and there are adventures still to be had! 

 

 

 



This is a small detail from the work - in real life it's full of texture and detail. The glass is hand blown and made up of the most expensive and colourful pigments. I love the way it's a solid artwork and at the same time you can see the bustle of the ambulances in the courtyard behind; it's a living, breathing hospital after all.

It's by Keith Grant and is called 'Millenium New World One' and I guess it was commissioned to celebrate the new millennium.

It's a real thing of beauty and as I was photographing it, people at the hospital café behind were watching me approvingly; people like it which is one mark of 'good' art.

Another month, hey?!
Why not!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:   neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Oncology, again.

This banner outside Charing Cross hospital does say it all; two days ago it was announced that Charing Cross will lose it's Accident and Emergency department and that is despite an election promise by David Cameron that it would 'never' shut.

What ever anybody says; close the A and E and the hospital dies. If all it's patients come from referrals then those referrals can just as easily go somewhere else.

Lose the A and E and whole disciplines are lost - the ones that come in as emergencies.

Charing Cross is a medieval hospital with a worldwide reputation- it left Charing Cross in the 1960's to go to purpose built modern buildings on the Fulham Road. Now the big plan is to demolish most of the hospital, sell off most of the land and rebuild.

The waste of money on architects, developers, estate agents and all the rest apart from the scope for corruption will be huge.

At the end of it all?

A shrunken hospital, no space, no light and no scope for any development in the future. It's not the way to go - it's stealing the future from the next generation.

Sigh.

We'll fight it but the closure is part of a big strategic plan - it's going to happen unless we embarrass the government enough.

I was back there for my 28 day visit to Oncology - never the happiest of times - life or death.

I was OK for another month, but it's clear to me that I'm pushing my luck; this last drug of all isn't going to last for ever.

It's like playing Russian Roulette; each time you pull the trigger it gets that more likely that the next time everything will go wrong.

So this month is going to have to work for me like no month ever has before.

There are adventures there for the taking!

I liked this picture from the entrance hall at Charing Cross a lot. It's a black and white study in a series of sea paintings by John Virtue;

Guess where I would rather have been?

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

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A present from the trustees of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection.

Once a month I visit oncology at Charing Cross Hospital.

It's not the best of days and I also have to wait for some really expensive medication. That takes a long time and I hand in to the inpatients pharmacy a big fat sharps bin full of used needles.

Every visit there is a changing display of art - cutting edge, traditional, boring, exiting, challenging, beautiful, terrible, wonderful. They come from the wonderful Imperial College Healthcare Art Collection which has made my visits to Charing Cross Hospital less bad.

Here they are;

Imperial College Healthcare Charity Art Collection brings works of art into our hospitals in a visually stimulating and vibrant way that enhances the health care environment for patients, staff and visitors. The Collection has established a reputation as one of London's leading hospital art collections. Our aim is to change the way the hospital environment is experienced; to transform a clinical and often intimidating space into a bright, uplifting place where visual art is promoted for the enjoyment of all.

We celebrate and promote good practice and innovation in all aspects of art in the health care setting. We seek to provide new situations for contemporary art in our hospitals and, by expanding the ways in which art is experienced, encourage people to broaden their understanding of art. The art initiatives are funded by the Imperial College Healthcare Charity, with additional funds provided by other sources for specific projects. We have secured funding from the National Lottery through the Arts Council England and are grateful for the generosity of others, including Tate, artists and collectors in providing loans of paintings and sculpture.
Art is displayed in public areas and wards at Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte's, St Mary's and the Western Eye hospitals. The Collection is strong in modern and contemporary British art, with works by artists including Gillian Ayres, Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, Gary Hume, Paul Huxley, Julian Opie, Bridget Riley, and Bill Woodrow. On our website, you can find out more about the Collection, our activities and special events.


Here's their website;
http://www.imperialcharity.org.uk/art-collections

I was wandering while I waited for a computer to say yes to my medication.

One of the corridors, leading to a place none of us wants to go to has just been decorated with a huge display of historic London Underground and Great Western Railway posters.

They aren't originals (they would cost about £1500 each) but they are nice reproductions handsomely framed. And while I prefer modern art, no one could dislike these wonderful images.

A sheer joy.

This one is not so very old, I can remember seeing it. The others are out of another world.

A wonderful present from the Trustees.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

 Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com