Joanne Wacha: Lessons on the Ward

Transcript

The only good thing I always thought about going to hospital is that you don’t have to go to school. Not in this country. They still had teachers coming in with the rolling computer and they’d come into my room and we’d still do lessons. I remember doing French lessons, I remember doing Science, again I avoided Maths, I still don’t know how I managed to do that. And English, because I was first of all paralysed neck down which meant that when the paralysis went away and just stopped at my waist it meant that my arms were very very weak, and I had to learn how to write again. But that was the great thing about probably having education in the hospital. What they did is they’d phone up your school and ask them for the material that you’re working on so you can carry on. So that, you know, I remember getting all these books and messages from the teachers, ‘Get well soon, hope to see you soon,’ but little did I know I’d never ever return back to that high school.

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