The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

A hundred celebrities and household names have come together to each write a story for a new book called Dear NHS , sharing their stories of our incredible national health service to say thank you in what has been one of the most challenging years in its history. This week I thought I'd write my own Dear NHS letter. Dear NHS,  I've been lucky so far in my life that I haven't needed you to save my life. Although of course, without you I probably wouldn't even be here. The majority of people born in the UK are helped into this world by the NHS and some need more help than others. I was awkward in the womb (not much has changed) and managed to get tangled up in my own umbilical cord- I was clumsy even before I was born. Had the NHS not been there with the right equipment and the right people then my story would have been over so quickly.  Whilst I haven't had much call on the NHS in my lifetime, I recognise the wonders it's made to my family. My younger brother con...

Lockdown has now eased in England and it means we can start to do things in places other than our homes for the first time in a while.  There seem to be two schools of thought towards how we should behave now. Some people seem to assume that the virus has mysteriously vanished and so they can carry on as before, happily wandering around and not even thinking about social distancing. Then there are the people who are scared to go out and are using online shopping unless they absolutely have to go out.  The latter is understandable and I'm certainly closer to that end of the spectrum myself, but I think we can't stop living forever. I've been thinking about this in the same way you do when you write a risk assessment. For example, the risk of crossing a road is that you can be ploughed down by a truck and die instantly. Now the likelihood of this happening is quite low and you can reduce it further by taking precautions, like using marked crossings and looking both ways. It...

In September, I'm going to be trekking 26 miles around Stonehenge for Alzheimer's Society.  It's a cause which means a lot to me. When I was a child, I could only watch helplessly as my lovely grandmother became an echo of her former self due to Alzheimer's. I learned about the condition on a family holiday when my Nan wandered into my bedroom and my parents had to explain it to me. I was horrified that such a thing existed but I didn't understand for a while what it meant for my Nan. As the years went by, she deteriorated and the family was robbed of an amazing woman.  My grandfather had to sacrifice his own life and well-being to care for her and took on the vast majority of the burden himself. Family and friends did their best to help but there was limited help from outside agencies.  Nearly two decades on from my grandmother's death, not much has changed. Whilst there is gradual progress in treating most medical conditions, a cure for dementia doesn't se...

Previously on 'The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan': I began doing the  Wildlife Trusts' 30 Days Wild challenge, the idea being to do something 'wild' every day in June. You can read about the first 15 days here . I've fantasied about being the star of a TV show all my life but writing a 'previously' section is the closest I'm ever likely to get. Today, here's what got up to in days 16-30: Day 16:  I had a close look at some local hedgerows. Often when people talk about watching wildlife they are referring to bird watching or looking for our larger mammals. But I find just standing next to a flowering hedgerow just as fascinating. There are so many species of invertebrates that you will almost always see something new and it's great to observe this tiny world we often overlook. Day 17 : I was sat in the garden and was surprised my cat seemed interested in something in the bushes. To my surprise, it was a small grass snake! We haven't seen...