Page 243 - She's One Crazy Lady!

Heartbreak
I want to take you back now, to August 2022...
The days following my appointment with Occupational Health and my immediate transition into that of being put on a medical suspension were hard. I worried about who was managing the school with the future Acting Head away until the end of August and the second Acting Head having left. There was nothing I could do.
On the first day of the school academic year, 2002, I, once again, had to watch children happily making their way to meet up with their friends, their new teacher – all looking forward to a new term, to working hard and to enjoying their education. I thought last year was hard. It was certainly different. Last year I was undergoing treatment. This year, although declared fit for work, as a Headteacher, I was on a medical suspension. The day before the children returned I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the Kettering Heads Group – welcoming me back and there was one positive that emerged – because I officially went back on August 1st, albeit for one day, I was back on full pay! The LEA stopped me on August 2nd.
(This fact could easily have been a title for my book: “Headteacher For A Day!”)
Having opened the PALS office at Kettering General, and I became a member of the Patient Cancer Focus group, I was asked if I would talk for five minutes at the next Cancer Management Committee Meeting where it would be discussed as to whether I would be appointed to join that Committee, a committee that consisted of Cancer Specialists and Clinical Nurses. If accepted, it would be a first for the hospital. At last! After such a long time of my brain being idle, I felt I could contribute something – I felt useful. Then a breast cancer patient, a lady called Lesley, who worked in a local pharmacy rang to ask if I would like to go along to the monthly Cancer Support Group Meetings held in the Centenary Wing at the hospital and run by one of the Breast Care Nurses. I rang Lesley for a chat and both Sue and I said we would go. My diary was filling up. I say it was filling up. It was, but there were still those long, long days at home to contend with.
One day, a cheque for £1,500 from Angie, who lead the ‘Tiddlywinks Playgroup’ at Highfields, was sent to me. She told me her two brothers and brother-in-law ran a successful printing firm in Kettering and, in
“My diary was filling up. I say
it was filling up. It was, but there were still those long, long days at home to contend with.
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