James’ story:
James spent his last couple of weeks in and out of hospital. He was initially diagnosed with a rare disorder called Adults Onset Stills Disease. He was discharged from hospital and seemed to be on the mend.

A couple of weeks later, things started to rapidly deteriorate and James was then diagnosed with Macrophage Activation Syndrome (‘MAS’) which is a rare complication related to Stills Disease. The MAS initially attacked James’ kidneys and he was on dialysis daily.

Approximately 2 weeks before James passed away, the MAS attacked his eyesight. We were told by the doctors that there was little hope it would come back.

James accepted the fact that he was going to spend the rest of his life blind and more or less immediately asked me to go out and buy him a guitar so he could teach himself to play whilst in hospital. Within a day or so, James had taught himself 2 chords on the guitar blind. This is one example of a number which shows exactly the sort of person James was.

I don’t have the words to describe the amount of strength and courage he showed after being told he would never see again. His bravery was unreal and he didn’t stop fighting. He tried everything including having eye injections directly into both eyes whilst completely conscious.

The blindness element of the MAS was a ‘minor part’ in terms of what he went through in hospital. Regardless of everything he stayed positive throughout. Everybody admired him. The doctors called him a hero.

This is the reason we have chosen The Royal National Institute of Blind people for donations, not only because of James’ story but because James also talked about raising money for this charity himself going forward.

I have no doubt whatsoever that James would have smashed life blind. That is one thing we are all certain of.

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