Where to begin………..
I knew a man, a good man, a man who saw life through rose tinted glasses and who was admired by all who took the time to know him. I knew this man for 24 years and was lucky enough to become his partner in the later years of his short life, a partner for 2 years and 9 months to be precise. His name was Harry Bull and he died on 27 March 2008, I tried to save him by pounding away at his chest and putting air into his lungs under the instruction of the 999 operator while I waited for the paramedics to arrive. It seemed to take an age for the ambulance to arrive and when the paramedic arrived he apologised for the delay, he had been held up at the railway crossing (no fault of his own) but he had come from Melton, had he come from Oakham there would not have been a hold up at the crossing (let down number 1).
He had a nickname, Ticker, because he had a metal heart valve that you could hear tick when there was silence in the room. The pacemaker helped to keep his heart beating correctly.
I will take you back to when he was born, 15 November 1965. He was born with a severe heart condition and was not expected to live, so his parents had another child, a daughter, 10 months later. Harry was still alive.
Harry had his first open heart surgery when he was just six years old, in Leeds. He had a further operation when he was 16 years old and then the final one at 24 years old.
He had left school with no qualifications but through his life he educated himself, passed his Math and English, NVQ level 3 motorbike mechanics and then finally to university where he graduated with honours at Southampton Solent University, November 2007. There are many more certificates in his folder. Throughout his life he strived to achieve and to not become another ‘Belle Isle on the dole statistic’, he understood why people lived like this but he didn’t want that life. He did work and he did pay taxes.
Harry went down to Southampton Solent University in the autumn of 2004. He apparently had a heart attack in his sleep and was then put under the care of a cardiologist in Southampton. They told him that he needed another heart valve, another operation. When I moved down there in 2005, I accompanied him to his next appointment when he was told that they hadn’t said he needed a replacement valve, he came out of the consultation room very angry and upset. This was let down number 2. You see, he was the most truthful and honest man you could have ever of had the pleasure of meeting, I knew this, I had known him for 22 years (when he died I had known him for 24 years). He had been claiming Incapacity Benefit during this period due to his heart attack.
In 2007 Gordon Brown announced that he was aiming to send back to work those on Incapacity Benefit, I remember his speech on the TV. Harry had to go for an interview and had to fill in a form that did not relate to his illness in any way, shape or form. He received 2 points for depression and his benefits were just stopped. He also wrote on the form for the Benefits Agency that if he was sent back to work he could have a heart attack. He had no choice but to seek work as soon as possible. (I passed a copy of this document to his daughter amongst his personal things). (Big let down number 3)
We moved to Market Overton in July 2007 to be near to my family and he got work at RPC in Oakham. He had to have a medical to say he was fit for work, they also said he was fit for work (let down number 4). So he was employed as a fork lift driver but there was a lot of labour intensive work involved also.
He kept saying that he felt so tiered and ill, but he carried on because the powers that be said he was fit for work. He clearly wasn’t because just 8 short months later he was dead.
What I am about to write here may sound over the top to you, but I have to write it, I thought that execution was abolished in this country, they sent him to his death and he had warned them of this fact and they ignored him. You see, I feel that if they hadn’t of forced him into work by just cutting him off from any form of living expenses (no money at all) he would still be here now.
When I went over to Grantham to see his body, there was a coroner who had to interview me, apparently he worked for the Police. He asked me a few questions, one of which was when he had last seen the doctor. I said that he hadn’t seen his own doctor for a while but had visited the nurse to have his blood checked the day before but had also said that he had had a medical at work to ensure he was fit for work, you see, he had been told he was fit for work. The Police coroner said that they were not proper medicals and wouldn’t count (so what was the point of them then? Is this yet another let down?).
Okay, to some people he would have been seen as the lowest of the low because he was claiming benefits and that they were going to work to keep him, but he had worked and he had paid his taxes and I thought that this country looked after us when we became ill, I thought that is why we work so hard, pay our taxes and NI, to be protected when we were ill. Those that judge should think hard, it could happen to them!
Gordon Brown threw the pebble into the water with his speech in 2007 and the ripple reached a person in the Benefits Agency who just stopped his money. What was he to do? He had bills to pay.
If you have read this far I thank you for your time. If this story is of no interest to you, then maybe, just maybe, you could pass it on to someone who may be interested.