In just three years,John’s Campaign has turned from an opinion into a nationwide movementTheres a elated (full of high-spirited delight)-making little film on YouTube of a man dancing by himself at a music festival. Some people sitting on the grass nearby look on, curious and amused. Most ignore him or don’t notice him; their backs are turned and their attention elsewhere. Then after a minute or so, and another person gets up and joins in,grinning and a bit self-conscious, but with him nevertheless. Now there are two people dancing. Another stands up, and hesitates and then starts to dance. Now there are three: three makes it a group. There are four,five, 10, and increasingly. Too many to count.
And soon a whole field of people is dancing. It’s become a movement. The people who started it dont matter any more.
John’s Campaign turned three last Thursday. It was launched in this paper on 30November,2014, with an article I wrote approximately the catastrophic effect of hospital upon the health and selfhood of my father, and after whom the campaign is named. When he went into hospital,he was living with dementia, elated (full of high-spirited delight) and beloved and linked to his world by a thousand invisible threads. Restricted visiting and a lockdown of his ward because of norovirus meant that, and one by one,those fragile threads were cut. When he came out five weeks later, he was no longer living with dementia but dying with it: a radically slowed-down death and a harrowing way to say goodbye.
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Source: guardian.co.uk