After the pain there will be sunshine - In the name of Thiago - Day 32


After the pain there will be sunshine

(this intriguing beer name may or may not have been aimed at the five blokes drinking the stuff)

The day Thiago went into cardiac arrest was horrible, the day he died was horrible and the day we buried our little man was pretty shit too.

Yesterday was a different sort of shit but certainly still measuring close to being off the shitometer scale. Yesterday I was hit by the realisation of what Angelica and I will now never have. Birthdays and Christmasses will be unbelievably desperate and we will probably end up taking a very different approach to how we deal with these occasions.

I’ve always enjoyed marking an occasion, normally with an enormous bosh up, so this will be difficult for me to process mentally. Speaking of bosh ups the five gentleman – and I hasten to add that I use the term very loosely – in the picture below gathered together in the Bottle Grove last night to make a toast to Thiago and mark what would have been his first birthday.


(from left to right; Aussie Dan, Moose, Bulldog, Jamie and Olly the Octopus)

Bottle Grove is a splendid little craft place in my hometown of Eastbourne. On the first Tuesday of every month they host a home brew club, of which Bulldog is a regular contributor. Greg, who runs the place, was happy to have the other fellas along to raise a glass for Thiago’s birthday and when they sent me some pictures last night, it did help me raise a smile.

These guys have never been far away from me when I’ve been really low and frankly there’s been a truckload of those moments this last six months or so as Thiago struggled bravely to live life to the fullest he could. And bloody hell, he did just that the little trooper.

There’s been some terrific media coverage over the last few days, which has definitely helped with the fundraising, as I know that I can’t do this on my own. So thank yous go to the Eastbourne Herald, BBC Radio Sussex (listen from 1:09 on the timeline), Signal Radio and The Sentinel who have all written and broadcast my story and my journey with a great sense of empathy. 

I’m already a third of the way to my £10,000 fundraising target, which even if I say so myself is a truly astonishing achievement, as I don’t (yet) have a corporate backer or anyone other than friends and family (with a little help from the media of course) who are getting behind me by driving this forward. So that says an awful lot of positive things about those closest to me. Big up yourselves people.



The fundraising will not stop. Angelica has now had a lesson in felting from her work colleague Gemma and is cracking on with making little Thiago hearts so if you’d like one, you can comment on the blog and/or send me a message on Facebook or Twitter. Gemma has made 70 hearts already and Angelica has made a dozen or so since yesterday, although her fingers have taken a bit of a stabbing in the process, poor lass!


Well that’s it for now, Southampton have just equalised at Spurs so I'd better go and lend a bit of support to the boys..

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