Newslink April marketing special

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“Here I am now, almost five
years on, 42 years old, I’ve lost
around three stone in weight
and I’m living a perfectly
normal and healthy life.
The moral of this story is look
after yourself, you only get one
shot at life, do not make
yourself sick for a job where the
clients will drop you at the first
chance.”
case the worst was to happen, but most
importantly, to make sure it was steak pie
that was on the menu at the wake, (there’s
nothing worse than soup and a sandwich
after a funeral!)
The next thing I was being wheeled round
to the operating theatre. The two girls
pushing me asked what I did for a living.
Predictably, just as I tell them I’m a driving
instructor, they crash the bed against the
wall. “You’ve got a serious driving fault there,”
I say. We all laugh!
Into the operating theatre I go. The place is
full of students watching in the gallery which
the surgeon asked me if it was ok for the
students to watch before I went in. My
thoughts are, we all need to learn so why not.
The surgeon preformed an angiogram and an
angioplasty and fitted a stent to the lower left
artery on my heart.
The entire process took less than 20 mins,
and I was then taken back to the ward for
recovery. By the time I got back to the ward
the whole family was there to welcome me
back.
I was in hospital for three days, every
morning started with an injection in the
abdomen with blood thinners – wow that
was sore! I was anxious to get released from
hospital as there was an election on the day I
got released and I wanted to go and vote!
Phone call to the DVLA to inform them and
I told my driving licence was revoked for one
month; this was the longest month of my life!
Colleagues all came and visited and helped
out, covering driving tests for those pupils
who had a test booked. It shows how great a
community driving instructors are, helping
out in our hour of need: Tom McDermid,
Michael Toal, John Archer, Alan Henderson,
Cheryl Lynch and Len Ratcliffe, I can’t thank
you enough.
Recovery was well underway. I could get
used to this relaxing malarky, I even went to
sunny Spain for two weeks after the doctors
said I was okay to travel!
I was fortunate enough to have taken out a
sickness insurance policy which safeguarded
my wages while I was off work for three
months and it also covered critical illness,
which I received a large pay out for!
Here I am now, almost five years on, 42
years old, I’ve lost around three stone in
weight and I’m living a perfectly normal and
healthy life.
The moral of this story is look after
yourself, you only get one shot at life, do not
make yourself sick for a job where the clients
will drop you at the first chance.
Having a heart attack at 37 certainly never
crossed my mind. Listen to your body and if
any of you ever experience chest pain, cold
sweats, or pains at the top half of your left
arm, go to the hospital straight away and get
checked out. Don’t do what I did and leave it
24 hours!
PACTS savages
Government over
failure to legislate
over e-scooters
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for
Transport Safety (PACTS) has criticised the
Government after it ruled out legislating on
e-scooters.
In a statement issued last month PACTS
said: “We have been informed that there is
insufficient Parliamentary time to consult
on e-scooters. It means that the likelihood
of legislating for private e-scooters with
regulations that set safety as the main
priority in 2024 is zero. This is a setback.”
PACTS accepted that the extension of
rental trials to May 2026 will enable the
Government to continue evaluating the
usage and safety impacts of e-scooters,
but “that will go no way towards dealing
with the over one million privately owned
e-scooters which are evidently being used
illegally on public roads.”
PACTS said that these vehicles “do not
pass testing, standard setting, or type
approval because they are not regulated for
use a motor vehicles. As such they bring
unnecessary hazards to riders and danger
to other road users.”
PACTS stands by its recommendations
made in March 2022, that the DfT needs to
take urgent action to address dangerous
and illegal private e-scooter use by:
n issuing clear information to the public
that it is illegal to use a private e-scooter
on public roads and in almost all public
places in the UK, and that they could incur
substantial fines and penalties if caught;
n taking action against retailers which
fail to properly inform customers of the
risks and illegality involved in the use of
private e-scooters, and
n supporting the police in taking
enforcement action against illegal and
unsafe use.
PACTS ended with a barbed criticism of
the Government’s grasp of road safety: “If,
as the then Minister Baroness Vere
announced in May 2022, ‘Safety is also at
the heart of our plans’, then a new Bill is
needed specifically to create a regulatory
framework for smaller, lighter, zeroemission
vehicles, as part of a new
low-speed, zero-emission vehicle
category.
NEWSLINK n APRIL 2024 43