Flight from Apartheid

Several of my patients have asked me to write this story. It’s not just about the happy years I have spent in Eccles and Manchester but also the wonderful people that I have had the honour of working alongside: both colleagues and, above all, my patients.

Although my story is relatively recent, it will come as no surprise for you to learn that the Behardiens come from much further afield. When I was a little boy my father told me about the time in late 1923 when he was a young lad and HMS Hood visited Cape Town Bay. He described how the whole city was spellbound and just about everyone ran down to the water’s edge just to catch a glimpse of the most amazing and most beautiful ‘battleship’ that the world had ever seen. This in turn created feelings within him as to who could have built and sent such a vessel; and later, when he was determined to flee a cruelly divided nation, it was clear where his future lay.

Although South Africa was an important stopping off point, the story begins even further from those shores, in fact the other side of the world. Our path has not by any means always been smooth but it has been both impactful and eventful.

As my own retirement draws near, I do hope you’ll enjoy reading about some of the twists and turns of our progress. One thing remains clear; something that both he and I have found to be true, that at all times it has been both a delight and a privilege to be working among such kind and friendly local folk. For this reason, the book is dedicated to every one of my marvellous patients and comes with my sincere thanks and every best wish for your future health and happiness.

"I had a nice, large room; not that there was any time to relax there as the packed work schedule would keep me busy. One night I was asleep and the bleep went off. I put on the light and got up. I think I’d collapsed on the bed still in my white coat. I realised that the floor was moving. I blinked a couple of times thinking it must be my vision that was playing me up. I then realised that the whole floor really was moving! It was like one of those Egyptian horror movies, filmed in the accursed tomb, as the floor was covered in cockroaches. There were thousands of them. The floor was completely covered with this seething mass. This is why it appeared to be moving."