Down with giving up...

Jake Atkin

A miracle worth waiting for

If you saw the amazingly brave Katie Piper on television recently, battling to get some sight back into her acid-damaged eye, you'll agree that  most of us have nothing to moan about.

 Today we hear that actress Judi Dench is suffering from macular degeneration which means she can no longer read the scripts that she depends on for her  film and television career.  In true showbiz style she admits that her friends now have to read her the scripts ('it's like being told a story') but that's fine as she can imagine the whole thing in her mind.

Both these women - one young and one in her late seventies - demonstrate the difference between putting up and giving in. It's so easy these days to blame our parents, our genes, our finances , even the star we were born under, for our fate in life, as if we don't have anything to do with it.

My nephew and his wife recently had a healthy baby boy  by  IVF after trying for a long time to conceive naturally.  The first rounds of treatment were unsuccessful and they were refused more, due to the age of the mother and seeming lack of viable eggs. It would have been easier at that stage to give up.  Instead, they fought the decision.  Following surgery to correct a minor complication, causing yet more heartbreak and delay, the pregnncy was finally announced.  You can only imagine the happiness that baby Jake has brought with him into the world.

When my own girls were small I remember one of them wailing over some minor injustice, 'but  mummy,
it's just not fair...'


'No it isn't,' I said. ' But life isn't fair, and it never will be. ' Harsh words, but they've never forgotten them.

Life may not be fair. but that doesn't stop us doing something about it. So here's to Katie, Judi and, of course - baby Jake! They deserve everything life has to offer.