Thank you for highlighting this wonderful organizations and the meaningful difference they make to many lives, including your own. Seeing your christmas tree made me smile. You continue to teach me something new with every post. Best wishes for the season.
Thank you from me too. It pulled me up as I am a long term performative Christmas grinch. I usually explain it as a.not being religious b. Hating the commercialism and c. Not having wonderful memories of family christmases past. Hang on tho. Why did I let all that emerge last week at my running club’s Christmas lunch. I mean it was great for 7 women varying in age from 45 to 75 (yes that’s me) lucky enough to live in Andalusia to enjoy lunch together in the sun. So I will try hard not to be a grinch any more, nor to complain that I can’t run at the moment because of a painful back. Wtf it will get better! Nuff said.
Merry festive season, Paul. I was a student of yours at KCL and graduated in 2022. Ended up on your substack a year ago after reading the article in the Guardian, and this entry made me very happy. I loved hearing about these charities and the impact they have on you and so many others. All of your entries take me back to your teaching and are truly inspiring. Thank you, and I'm glad you're doing better.
For a brief period the rehab team on the stroke and neuro rehab unit bordered on anarchic. It was like a play group for the cognitively-impaired. Mayhem! They set up a production line. Patients who were recovering from strokes. Others with dementia or with neurological conditions that defied categorisation, all gleefully slapping green paint on partially-inflated latex gloves tied off at the bottom. I never saw a happier group of unwell people. When there were enough green gloves, the rehab team assembled them into a likeness of a Christmas tree, albeit it one formed from severed human hands, like something you would stumble across in the war torn regions of the Congo. It stood for a few hours at the entrance to the ward and then Infection Control designated it as medical waste and made us take it down.
I am gladdened by your recent upturn in mood which has transcended acceptance and rapidly graduated to open engagement. We have come a long way from somebody asking a carer in your presence “does he take sugar?” but there is still a great distance to travel. The fight has to be led by people like you who have lived experience.
Of all the major world religions, Christianity has the best music and you can crucify me on that hill. The Christmas Carols, in particular. Who wouldn’t be moved by a rendition of Once in Royal David's City? Actually I can think of one person: I was watching film footage of Sadiq Khan – the incumbent mayor of London – visibly panicking at a carol concert where he was expected to join in with a chorus of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, as though he expected the inferno to open up under his feet, like at the end of Drag Me To Hell. The fact that this has not yet happened to Khan is one of the things that keeps me from embracing Christ. You can say what you like about Ken Livingstone. I doorstepped him at some event in London, along with a mob of other journalists and photographers. He breezed past us, with not an assistant or a bodyguard in sight, hopped onto a bus and off he went.
Recently I have been walking around singing the hymns of John Newton who you may have confused with the late Olivia Newton John since they were never photographed together. John Newton was a slave trader who converted to Christianity, renounced his past and became an abolitionist. He wrote Amazing Grace and a slew of lesser known hymns which I have been pillaging for chapter titles that I will use in my psychedelic pirate novel, which I must finish next year.
Bah humbug etc…your latest post is testament to many great people and organizations that have got you this far. Shining a light on their work is an eye opener for those of us oblivious to their very necessary help and assistance.
Hi Paul - thanks for another great post. I didn't expect that picture at all !!!! Fantastic. I'll be supporting the 3 charities in your post for sure. Keep making that difference Paul. Happy Christmas to you🎄.
Thank you for your amazing writing and for sharing your journey from darkness to light; you're a bright, shining star showing us what the human spirit can accomplish, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I'll definitely donate to a charity you mentioned. Awesome that you've become an ambassador for one.
Brilliant that there are such organisations which bring some light into darkened lives when they most need it. Unless one's life has been touched by such a catastrophic event, these organisations wouldn't be known to most of us. Good on you for bringing them to our attention.
All the best for a happy Christmas and an interesting and eventful 2026! Looking forward to following you on your journey!
I’m really glad you’re doing better Paul. Gives all of us hope with spinal cord injuries that there are better days ahead, and to those charities that helped. So needed!
Hi Paul, very cool tree! I absolutely love christmas, I am a vet, and a philosopher, and an immigrant, and I start wearing my christmas scrubs to work as soon as seems remotely decent. I love Christmas carols and I so love seeing pets in Christmas outfits. A pitbull in an elf outfit Ok,I melt. I am obviously a very bad person, as I am an atheist:-) But I do love your tree!!!!
Thank you so much Paul. Your posts mean a great deal to me. And those 3 charities sound excellent. Thanks for bringing them to our attention.
You have travelled an extremely long way, speaking metaphorically/development-wise. And it feels a privilege that we get to share a bit of what you go through. Thanks again.
Thank you for highlighting this wonderful organizations and the meaningful difference they make to many lives, including your own. Seeing your christmas tree made me smile. You continue to teach me something new with every post. Best wishes for the season.
This story made me so happy for you! What a difference a year can make.
I’ll support these charities, too, they all sound amazing. Wishing you a lovely Christmas and plenty more good and great days in 2026!
Thank you from me too. It pulled me up as I am a long term performative Christmas grinch. I usually explain it as a.not being religious b. Hating the commercialism and c. Not having wonderful memories of family christmases past. Hang on tho. Why did I let all that emerge last week at my running club’s Christmas lunch. I mean it was great for 7 women varying in age from 45 to 75 (yes that’s me) lucky enough to live in Andalusia to enjoy lunch together in the sun. So I will try hard not to be a grinch any more, nor to complain that I can’t run at the moment because of a painful back. Wtf it will get better! Nuff said.
All the best for 2026. Your efforts to give yourself a good life are inspirational. I’ve been rooting for you at every point.
Merry festive season, Paul. I was a student of yours at KCL and graduated in 2022. Ended up on your substack a year ago after reading the article in the Guardian, and this entry made me very happy. I loved hearing about these charities and the impact they have on you and so many others. All of your entries take me back to your teaching and are truly inspiring. Thank you, and I'm glad you're doing better.
For a brief period the rehab team on the stroke and neuro rehab unit bordered on anarchic. It was like a play group for the cognitively-impaired. Mayhem! They set up a production line. Patients who were recovering from strokes. Others with dementia or with neurological conditions that defied categorisation, all gleefully slapping green paint on partially-inflated latex gloves tied off at the bottom. I never saw a happier group of unwell people. When there were enough green gloves, the rehab team assembled them into a likeness of a Christmas tree, albeit it one formed from severed human hands, like something you would stumble across in the war torn regions of the Congo. It stood for a few hours at the entrance to the ward and then Infection Control designated it as medical waste and made us take it down.
I am gladdened by your recent upturn in mood which has transcended acceptance and rapidly graduated to open engagement. We have come a long way from somebody asking a carer in your presence “does he take sugar?” but there is still a great distance to travel. The fight has to be led by people like you who have lived experience.
Of all the major world religions, Christianity has the best music and you can crucify me on that hill. The Christmas Carols, in particular. Who wouldn’t be moved by a rendition of Once in Royal David's City? Actually I can think of one person: I was watching film footage of Sadiq Khan – the incumbent mayor of London – visibly panicking at a carol concert where he was expected to join in with a chorus of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, as though he expected the inferno to open up under his feet, like at the end of Drag Me To Hell. The fact that this has not yet happened to Khan is one of the things that keeps me from embracing Christ. You can say what you like about Ken Livingstone. I doorstepped him at some event in London, along with a mob of other journalists and photographers. He breezed past us, with not an assistant or a bodyguard in sight, hopped onto a bus and off he went.
Recently I have been walking around singing the hymns of John Newton who you may have confused with the late Olivia Newton John since they were never photographed together. John Newton was a slave trader who converted to Christianity, renounced his past and became an abolitionist. He wrote Amazing Grace and a slew of lesser known hymns which I have been pillaging for chapter titles that I will use in my psychedelic pirate novel, which I must finish next year.
Bah humbug etc…your latest post is testament to many great people and organizations that have got you this far. Shining a light on their work is an eye opener for those of us oblivious to their very necessary help and assistance.
Hi Paul - thanks for another great post. I didn't expect that picture at all !!!! Fantastic. I'll be supporting the 3 charities in your post for sure. Keep making that difference Paul. Happy Christmas to you🎄.
Merry Christmas, Paul.
Thank you for your amazing writing and for sharing your journey from darkness to light; you're a bright, shining star showing us what the human spirit can accomplish, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I'll definitely donate to a charity you mentioned. Awesome that you've become an ambassador for one.
Love, Sarah
Brilliant that there are such organisations which bring some light into darkened lives when they most need it. Unless one's life has been touched by such a catastrophic event, these organisations wouldn't be known to most of us. Good on you for bringing them to our attention.
All the best for a happy Christmas and an interesting and eventful 2026! Looking forward to following you on your journey!
Great to hear about all the organisations you’re benefiting from and helping! I always feel a bit (bah) humbled when I read your posts in a good way.
I’m really glad you’re doing better Paul. Gives all of us hope with spinal cord injuries that there are better days ahead, and to those charities that helped. So needed!
Hello Paul, not bad, for a Christmas tree newbie! And thank you for the links to useful organizations!
Hi Paul, very cool tree! I absolutely love christmas, I am a vet, and a philosopher, and an immigrant, and I start wearing my christmas scrubs to work as soon as seems remotely decent. I love Christmas carols and I so love seeing pets in Christmas outfits. A pitbull in an elf outfit Ok,I melt. I am obviously a very bad person, as I am an atheist:-) But I do love your tree!!!!
And a very [insert festive cliché] to you too Paul. Cute tree
Thank you so much Paul. Your posts mean a great deal to me. And those 3 charities sound excellent. Thanks for bringing them to our attention.
You have travelled an extremely long way, speaking metaphorically/development-wise. And it feels a privilege that we get to share a bit of what you go through. Thanks again.