On Wednesday evening, I went to the local Spire hospital for an MRI scan of my left knee.
I know I have bored everyone to death with the story about the surgery that I'll be having on my left knee, but I've decided to electively have an MRI scan after a discussion with the surgeon in London just to make sure I had all the information for him available to make the best decision.
I went to the Spire Hospital and was entirely uninspired, interestingly.
I was met at the front door by someone with an iPad who directed me to the right place for the scan.
The lady at reception was nice enough but not really engaged; the surroundings were, as my son would say, 'mid'.
I went to the toilet, and there was toilet roll lying on the floor; it hadn't been cleaned since that morning, and nobody had paid attention.
The fixtures, fittings, and general appearance were entirely hospital (It is a hospital, but it doesn't have to be quite so hospital), and then I had two technicians carry out the MRI scan (£485), which was all well and good.
I lay in the machine and was a little bit anxious because I'm a little bit claustrophobic, but in fact, I fell asleep during the process (I can fall asleep anywhere). I had some headphones on to listen to Radio 2 (no choice), which in no way blocked out the noise of the MRI scanner, and I could not hear Radio 2 at all when the machine was banging.
In spite of that, I fell asleep a little bit and then was told off in my headphones that I'd moved my leg, probably a twitch and the scan was taken again.
I walked out and went to reception to pay, and the lady said, "Well, you can pay now if you want, or I can invoice you", so I thought, just invoice me because you might forget.
I also asked for a copy of the scan, and she told me that it would be a subject access request; I needed two forms of ID, and I'd have to fill out the form from this QR code, completely patient-centric - not.
But the next thing I did was I got in my car, and I drove to the training pitches that we use for the football team I coach on a Thursday night to meet a lady.
I was to meet a lady who's in charge of the inclusivity team at West Bridgford Colts, the whole of the project, that provides football for people who would never really otherwise be able to access football, and certainly not team football for all sorts of reasons, people who've been pushed out of their own teams with their friends because, well, they don't fit, people who just want to have fun and play football, people who just want to be involved in team sport and the joy and beauty of that.
I had gone down because we are one of the partners of West Bridgford Colts and have been for the last 2 years, but it turns out that by a twist of fate, we don't have to pay the money to print the strips with our logo on the front now because they're Nike strips and they're pre-printed (they look amazing).
And so, we have About 1600 strips in West Bridgford Colts with our name on it, but we don't have to print it now; we just have to pay the money that we pay to be the supporters (and we pay quite a lot).
But with the spare printing money, the chief executive suggested that we recycle it somewhere else. I asked what the opportunities were, and he suggested that I might go and look at the inclusivity setup because they really needed the money.
I'd gone from mediocre and middle-class healthcare to meeting somebody who is running this whole project for no other benefit than to help other people, loads of time, loads of heartache, and almost certainly loads of their own money; what's not to like about helping that, what's not to like about supporting it?
We chatted for a bit, and I said that I was sure we could take the money we had already spent on printing and use it in here and get the Colts to double it up.
At a stroke, we could make it astonishing for these guys, proper training tops, everyone looking the same, enough kit, even just something to eat at the tournaments that they play once a month on a Sunday because they come from backgrounds where they really don't even turn up with a bottle of water.
This woman was brilliant.
I'd come from a flat situation where I thought it could be much better into something completely extraordinary, just basking in somebody else's reflected glory of how brilliant they were.
These people are everywhere if you choose to find them, and it's a joy when you do.
Blog Post Number - 4113