After
reading the second essay, Simon Bullingham suggested the third should be about
"Popes and Presidents". You will see what he means and the
significance of my title as you read on.
I
have been in the habit of writing to, telephoning and emailing well known
people for a variety of reasons. An appropriate start is with a couple of
examples involving the Bullingham family. The Bullinghams were close friends of
ours from Cheltenham and I am Godfather to their daughter, Rachel.
We
went to Barbados for the New Year with the Bullingham, Stones and Powell
families, all from Cheltenham, in the early 1980s. There were 19 of us
including children. I had read somewhere that just as the sun disappeared over
the sunset, in certain conditions, one could see a brief green flash of light.
I got into the habit each evening of looking for this and I definitely observed
it a couple of times. I told the others and they all joined me for a sunset. I
saw it again but none of the others did. They implied I was crackers and teased
me mercilessly for the rest of the holiday. When we got home to Castleford, I
wrote to the TV astronomer, Patrick Moore telling him all this. A couple of
weeks later I received a postcard from him. "It is true! The green flash
was discovered in the Vatican observatory in 1960 ........" I could hear
his enthusiastic voice. I sent a copy of the postcard to each of the adults so
they could eat humble pie, which some of them did.
Continuing
with the Bullingham family, Bill was a member of the Cheltenham Conservative
party and was an alderman and eventually the mayor. I was a Labour supporter
then. In 1977 I decided to give Bill a signed copy of Prime Minister Harold
Wilson’s book “The Labour Government 1964-70”. This was a present for his
birthday. I collect signed books and my technique is to send the book with a
stamped addressed package and a covering letter. I sent two to Harold Wilson
and explained the conservative leanings of my friend. I wanted a copy for
myself. In mine he wrote: “For Dr Richard Sloan with the writer’s compliments
and best wishes, Harold Wilson. January 1997”. In Bill’s book he wrote: “For
Bill Bullingham. Harold Wilson. January 1997.”
In
1979 I had a letter published in the British Medical Journal about cervical
smears. Here is a copy of that letter:
I
got into serious trouble. First of all the Leeds laboratory banned me from using
it pointing out I was wasting money (two slides!!). Then the press got hold of
it and it was reported in one paper roughly: “GP accuses laboratory of not
being able to tell difference between snot and the cervix”. At that time the
ITV soap’s Coronation Street actress Julie Goodyear (Bet Lynch) was diagnosed with
cervical cancer. She kept it quiet at first and I am pleased to say she made a
complete recovery and founded a charity that resulted in the Julie Goodyear
Cancer Screening Centre. When the national newspaper, The Sun, phoned me about
my letter I decided it was time to shut up.
The
Iranian Hostage Crisis lasted over 400 days from 1979 to 1981. Kath and I were
now working in Castleford. Late one evening I decided to make a few phone
calls, most likely after several drinks. I used international directly enquiries
to get three telephone numbers. . The motivation for these phone calls was that
I felt so sorry for President Jimmy Carter. He had tried everything to get
their release and had virtually bunkered himself in the White House. I first
phoned the White House and told them I wanted to express my appreciation of
what the President was doing. I got right through to where he was and the
person on the end of the phone asked if I wanted to speak to him!! I declined.
I received a card from him and the signature is his.
This
increased my confidence but when I got through to the Kremlin and asked to
leave a message for President Brezhnev, the phone was put down on me. I think
they were shocked I had got that I had got through. Finally I phoned the UK
Foreign office and asked to speak to Lord Carrington, the foreign secretary at
the time. I was told that he was asleep.
When
we arrived to live in Airedale, Castleford in 1978, the approach to the
surgery, which was semi-detached from the house, was a rough track. I tried to
raise some money to tarmac this narrow road and wrote to all sorts of people,
including the sclupturist, Henry Moore, who was born in Castleford. To my
amazement he replied and enclosed a cheque for £10. It is interesting to note
that that he stuck a smiley on the back of the letter.
In
May 1981 Pope John Paul was shot and spent quite a time in the Gemelli hospital.
I read in a newspaper that he was on the top floor and had an elevated
temperature and this after two or three weeks in there. I wrote to the Pope and
informed him that I felt he had been in hospital far too long and that if one
is shot in Castleford one is out of hospital quickly. I recommended that he be
advised to be discharged and get plenty of fresh air. The letter below is self-explanatory!
I doubt if many people have had prayers said for them by a future saint!
I
must have had a thing about Pope John Paul because after his visit to the UK in
1982 I decided he should have the Nobel Peace Prize. The leading catholic at
that time was the Duke of Norfolk and I wrote to him. One evening on my return
home from a home visit after surgery, Kath informed me that The Duke of Norfolk
had telephoned and would be phoning back in an hour. This he did and he took my
idea very seriously and advised me to write to Lord Longford which I did. He
too phoned when I was out and when I spoke to him later he advised me to write
to the Nobel Committee in Stockholm. I never received a reply to that letter.
We
used to go to the pantomime regularly in the 1980s. We went with our relations
in Leeds. One year we went to the Alhambra in Bradford. We took my mother who
was chronically unwell at that time but still loved going out with us. We had
seats in the balcony. The pantomime dame was Christopher Biggins who was and is
a famous comedian. The pantomime started with him coming on stage with a pram
containing lots of small sweet and chocolate bars. He threw them out to the
audience sitting in the stalls. When it came to the balcony, he used a
catapult. My mother was gently nodding off to sleep. She was rudely awoken by a
bar of fudge shooting up her skirt. The next day I wrote him a letter and the
first page was complaining and the second page making it clear I was joking. He
loved it. Again, another phone call while I was out visiting my patients. One
of the receptionists, Andrea, answered Christopher Biggin’s phone call to the
surgery. He was laughing his head off about the letter and Andrea was delighted
to talk to him.
GPs
received a free medical magazine called PULSE. There was a competition each
week and I sort of entered each week. The small print stipulated that one was
not allowed to enter the competition if one had a relative in the
Morgan-Grampian publishing group. I wrote in and said I was very nervous of
breaking the rules and that I had a very large extended family. I asked if they
could look into whether I had any relations working for them. I labelled my
signature as “co-owner of a strip club” which is what a doctor’s surgery could
be broadly described as. I never actually submitted an answer to the
competition. I would write and complain about some aspect. I remember a
photograph that was of a 40 year old accountant. I complained that he could not
possibly be an accountant as his back was profusely covered with hair. I was
pleased when they asked me to submit a regular article but I did not have
time!!
My
signed books include the authors Edward Heath (a present from Bill), Roy
Jenkins, Bill Rogers, David Owen, Anne Widdicombe, Tony Blair, all of my
Godson’s novels (Nick Earls) and many others. I had a problem with Shirley
Williams because I read her book on my kindle. I wrote to her and she wrote
back “Not to be outdone by Roy and David…..” She sent me a small piece of card
with a signed message to put in my kindle holder.
Last
year I wrote to Brian Sewell, the Evening Standard’s art critic after I heard
him talking on the radio 4 Today programme about his autobiographical work
“Sleeping with Dogs”. It was about the rescue dogs he had loved and lost.
Amongst other things, I told him of a medical education meeting I had set up
for vets and General Practitioners. The meeting started with our hospice doctor
talking for 10 minutes anti-euthanasia. The vets were somewhat shocked as they
put down animals regularly. We came to the conclusion that GPs should refer
patients to vets for euthanasia. His reply was on a postcard of a painting from
The Wallace Collection: “Thank you – much informed and amused by your letter – I
shall take myself to the vet when my time comes – sincerely –“.
I
heard Sir Max Hastings, the historian and journalist, on the Andrew Marr show earlier
this year reviewing the papers. I wrote to him:”I was
also somewhat shocked when you said that you had been on statins for about
seven years and that “nobody told me….that there were any side-effects”. Andrew
Marr seems to be in a similar position. This resulted in my shouting at the television
and writing this letter:
“Since you started your statins, you
have had approximately 84 boxes of tablets each of which will have contained a
leaflet describing the side-effects. I
enclose the leaflet about my statins and I have highlighted what is probably in
all leaflets that come with different statins. If this is not mentioned in your
leaflet, please let me know”. I had a charming letter back from him promising
to read tablet leaflets from then on. It is the only letter I have ever had
that had Esq. after my name. Esquire comes below a Knight and above a Gentleman
in the Royal, Noble and Chivalric ranks!
I have written loads of fan letters over
the years and email the BBC current affairs programmes sometimes and
occasionally have been read out.
I am sure I will continue with this hobby
but have to get up early do some of it while Kath is still asleep.
