Dave Galle

Yesterday I made the trek up the Jubilee Line to visit Dave in hospital. He’s in the Spinal Injuries Unit of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore. As the free minibus service between the tube station and the hospital is not running at the moment (mechanical problem I believe), I took my Brompton folding bike on the tube with me from Southwark (where I work). By not having any lunch breaks previously in the week, I’d arranged to have a long one for this day. I ate my sandwiches on the way and was slightly uncomfortable with the fact that there were only two people in the entire carriage and we were sat right next to each other (studiously looking in opposite directions)!

Out of the station I headed west and then turned up a little lane that proceeded to climb up Brockley Hill with Stanmore Park on the right. My Brompton is only two-speed in order to minimise the weight, so climbing this rather stiff hill was a bit of an effort to say the least – I had to stand on the pedals for 100 yards or so and my cadence was less than one a second I fancy!! However, after about 5 minutes of effort I crested and headed east for a few hundred yards before pulling up at the hospital. As I folded my bike it was starting to rain and, not seeing anywhere suitable to chain it to, I carried it into reception. Much to my surprise, the receptionist said I was OK to carry it into the ward! When I got to Dave’s ward he wasn’t there but his timetable told me he was having some physio and that he’d be finished in a couple of minutes, so I waited. Soon I saw him motoring down the corridor in an electric wheelchair. He gave me a hearty greeting and suggested we go to the dayroom for a cup of tea and a chat. He then blew my socks off by standing and proceeding to walk – very slowly and slightly wobbly, but walking under his own steam. That made my day – nay, it made my year! We slowly made our way to the dayroom but as there weren’t enough chairs there, we turned around and went back to get Dave’s electric chair before finally settling down in what was quite a busy dayroom.

I had to admit to Dave that I’d been quite depressed after my two previous visits to see him as I found it very upsetting to see him struggling to move when I was more used to seeing him on a bike and disappearing up the road in front of me. But now I’d seen him walking again I’m hoping that it won’t be that many months before he starts riding again. He proceeded to give me more good news in that there’s a chance he’ll be allowed back home sometime in March. Not being one to miss a chance I thought that would be a good opportunity to mention the Pedaller and the fact that we’re going to be late producing the Spring edition and that we were even considering making a joint Spring/Summer edition instead. Dave seemed quite optimistic that he would be able to produce the Spring edition himself, slightly later than usual but maybe by early April. I for one would be really pleased to see him do this and would make a request for any of you reading this to send him articles or features for potential inclusion. Dave was saying that working on the Pedaller would be a useful form of therapy and perhaps aid him in regaining his manual dexterity.

An hour had flown by and Dave’s dinner had just arrived so I decided to take my leave and with a big beaming smile I pedalled down the hill through the rain and sleet and back to the tube station. Forty-five minutes later I was back at work and telling all my colleagues how chuffed I was at Dave’s progress.

One final note: has the motorist who nearly killed Dave learnt anything from this? Has he amended his driving style? Has he invested in further driving education? Is he aware of the impact on Dave and the struggle and effort Dave is making to get back to normal? Has his bad driving affected him in any way? Sometimes I think I’d like to talk it over with him but I think I would probably get too angry to do any good so I’m probably better just bashing away at this keyboard…..