I went back to work today feeling wonderful after five whole days here with David. We’ve only been out four times since I started my mini holiday last Thursday and to be honest it has been such a pleasure to be at home in this house that I’ve struggled and fought for over the ten years that I have lived here. I spend so much time away and working that to have five days here has been blissful.

Within moments of arriving at my desk my mood was changed irreparably and I come home with heavy heart and feeling very blue indeed.

Last week I had to face up to some really sad news. A work colleague and friend, Anca, lost a three years long struggle against cancer. I could hardly say she was my closest friend but she was nonetheless a valued one. She was our payroll administrator and I had a lot of contact with her, partly because of staff salary issues and partly because I donate money to charity each month direct from my salary and it seems very few people do this. She was a dog lover and two of the charities I give money to each month are ‘dogs helping people’ charities. It’s a thing of mine because I value the relationships I’ve had with Toby and, more recently, Rosie and Archie so much that I want to help others develop bonds with dogs where the human benefits in more ways than simply love. So, I give to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and Guide Dogs for the Blind. Anca was a big dog lover and she used to send me stuff about dogs and I returned her kindness by sending her photos of Rosie and Archie. How I will miss our chats on the phone and email messages to one-another.

Today I hear of another colleague who is fighting for his life in an Intensive Care Unit after suffering two strokes at the weekend. This man is one of the nicest, kindest men I know as well as being one of a dying breed of ‘gentlemen business men’. There are so few of those in the world now that I really truly believe we must treasure them for their knowledge and business acumen. My ex-boss, Neil was a similar sort of chap. They know EVERYTHING about the business we work in and, if you go to them with a problem, can always point you in the right direction if they can’t help themselves.

John is just such a man. I often mull over problems with him, whether or not they are things that relate to his job he’s always willing to offer advice and help.

On Thursday, as I left for my long weekend, I looked at him packing up his stuff at the end of the day and thought ‘oh, I didn’t go and see John to talk to him about that presentation I’ve got to give…..never mind, I’ll see him on Wednesday’. Little did I know that he’d not be in today or that he’d be so ill.

It’s funny, a few of us knew he was ill. He’d discussed his medication with us and you could tell he’d got a big problem by the drugs he’s taking and their doses. Not to mention his sky-high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. He joked about it though. In fact, he’d just arrived home from the gym when he had his first stroke.

I feel miserable for us at the office (selfishly I realise) but more to the point, he has a young family and his children are still at school. That’s something young children should never have to experience, seeing their Dad in a hospital bed in that way. How I feel for them tonight.

So, today’s posting is dripping with symbolism and some might say cliché but I’m unashamed in my posting because I believe in the power of hope and in luck and I want my hope for John and his family to be known to the world.

I have chosen this stack of books, each one selected individually, because they are all about the triumph of hope over adversity. They're not all great books in the literary sense but they are all books I've enjoyed. Some are about triumph in love, some about poverty, some about racism, some about political struggle and some about the fight against illness. I chose to illuminate my stack of triumphant books with a desk lamp to symbolise the office and how a man like John lights my way and brings me knowledge that I don’t possess myself.

I sit at my desk in my home office only imagining what John’s family go through tonight and feel miserable and helpless. All I can do is hope for his inner strength to overcome his adversity and that is most assuredly what I am doing.

Beat this thing John, you know you can.