Whether you take off to “ready, set, go”
Or move a white pawn with 1. e4
Whether you choose ends on the toss of a coin
Or “lights out” makes the engines roar

Whether the ref’s whistle starts the first half
Or the first pitch is called foul or fair
Whether the bell marks the start of the first round
Or we hear “Play” from the umpire’s chair

Everyone’s got to start somewhere
In rain, or in snow, or in fog
But that’s enough rhyming for now
I need to make a start on this blog

How do you go about writing a blog that you’ve got no reason to expect anyone to read ?  Sure, my friends and family will be sent the link, and they may learn something new about me, but who else is ever going to be interested in my story ?  For all my working life, I have known the audience I am writing for, and I’ve known the message I want to deliver.  I’ve had a dedicated audience for a prescribed message.  For the first time, I’m going to embark upon a piece of writing that has no identifiable audience, and I certainly don’t know what message I aim to deliver !

It seems to me that the only way to proceed is on the basis that there will be interest beyond my direct friends and family groups, and so I need to think of the reader as being anyone who might happen upon this website.  To that end, I will introduce myself as if talking to a relative stranger.  So, here goes……

I was born in 1965 in Forest Gate, London when my parents were living in North Woolwich.  We moved to the Little Ilford council estate in Manor Park when I was 2, or thereabouts.  So, I consider myself a ‘council estate cockney’.  Not a born-in-the-sound-of-the-Bow-Bells cockney, but a cockney, nonetheless.  My mum was a proper cockney, having been born in Bow.  My dad was a proud Cornishman.  With a surname like Sullivan, it’s no surprise that we have Irish blood, and with my dad’s middle name being Llewellyn, it’s also no surprise that my ancestors travelled through Wales before settling in Cornwall.  Strangely, I didn’t cotton on to the Welsh links until after my dad died in 1990.  It was only then that I learned that my dad’s dad was a Welshman.  He had died when I was 2, so I have little to no memory of him.  I’ve since subscribed to the DNA site, 23&Me, which has confirmed that I have strong links to both Wales and Ireland.

Unfortunately, I lost my mum in 2008 and both she and my dad were ‘only children’.  That means all my memories are just that.  I have no way of validating my early memories, but I’m not so worried about that because the purpose of this blog is to look to the future and not to the past.  It is important to say, though, that my mum died of complications brought on by chronic kidney disease.  Polycystic Kidney Disease (poly = many, cysts) is hereditary, and I know for sure my mum’s mum suffered from it.  My brother and my youngest sister have all been diagnosed with PKD, as have I.  My brother has been transplanted, while my sister and I are both currently dialysis patients.

I have been married twice and have 3 children.   Matthew, 35, and Rebecca, 33, from my first marriage, and Jack, 19, with my wife Kate.  Matthew has been diagnosed with PKD and required a transplant in early 2022.  Neither Rebecca nor Jack have been diagnosed.   As this blog is abo ut my journey, I don’t intend going into any great detail about my wife and children.  I’ll reference them where relevant, but no more than that.

I won’t dwell on my work history, because it has little bearing on the things I want to do going forward.  I started full time work at 16, having left school after ‘O’ levels.  I joined the Bank of England as an entry level clerk in 1981, when it was common for school leavers to get jobs with the banks.  I was offered plenty of jobs, but there seemed something very special about being offered a job by the Bank of England ! 44 years later, having done 13 years with the B of E, 13 more with JPMorgan, and 16 years as a contractor, I finally called it a day.   The vast amount of time as a contractor was spent working for Nat West, which is where I finally retired from.  Between leaving JPM and starting as a contractor, I qualified as a driving instructor, attained a Private Hire (mini cab) license and studied the Black Cab Knowledge for 2 years.

What I do want to spend some time talking about is the way in which dogs have come to be a very important part of mine and Kate’s lives.  When we moved back to London from the New Forest in 2002, we had two cats, Moses (Mo) and Buddy.   Mo went missing withing a couple of weeks of us moving up, although we’re certain we saw him some time later living a couple of roads down.  Buddy stayed with us for another 14 years and died of old age.  It was around that time that we decided we wanted to take on the responsibility of a dog.  We were also certain that we wanted it to be a rescue dog.  With the help of a charity called Wild at Heart, we rescued a dog that we came to call Luna.  Luna was on ‘death row’ in a municipal pound in Romania, until Wild at Heart intervened.  She was in a bad way and needed urgent treatment from the local vet.  We were told at the time that we might have issues with Luna, but went ahead with the adoption, nonetheless.   When Luna came to us, she was completely shut down, and it took a fair while for her to decompress.  She never fully came to terms with sudden noises or being taken by surprise.  When out walking we had to be very conscious of joggers or cyclists and react accordingly.

Luna had her first noticeable epileptic fit in 2017, and the next two years were a constant battle to control the condition.  We had been warned that she may have suffered brain trauma in Romania, and that turned out to be the case.  Generally speaking, we were able to control the epilepsy with medication but, as predicted by the vet team, the condition was always going to worsen.  We eventually got to the point where the fits were happening regularly, and she was causing herself physical harm due to the violent nature of the fits.  It was with great sadness that we took the decision to put Luna to sleep in March 2019.

In January 2018 we had adopted a second rescue dog, Hope, also through Wild at Heart.  Hope came to us as a newborn puppy from Cyprus.  Her and Luna immediately hit it off and when Luna left us in 2019, it had quite an impact on Hope.  That led us to adopt our third rescue dog, Freddie, also from Cyprus.  This time we adopted through a charity called Underdog International, which was started by someone who had been part of Wild at Heart.  Freddie is a Cyprus Hound and was likely part of a breeding programme for the hunting industry in Cyprus.  He was picked up on the streets rooting through bins for food.  Hope and Freddie remain with us today and are often joined by other Underdog International rescue dogs, who we foster while they wait for their forever homes.   We’re currently compiling a list of all of the dogs we have fostered, so I will cover that at another time.  I’ll also create a gallery of all of the dogs we’ve owned or fostered.

That, fairly much, brings us up to date and on to the main purpose of the blog.  Now that I’m retired, I want to focus on a number of things that I’ve put off, using work as an excuse.  Those things are:

1. Trace my Ancestry – With mum and dad having died a while back and with them both being only children, I have very few reference points for my ancestry.  I’m most interested in following my dad’s ancestry back through Wales and into Ireland.  The name Sullivan comes from Cork, so I would expect to eventually end up there, but I’m keen to learn the journey that my paternal ancestors took through Wales and into Cornwall.  My expectation is that they were a family of miners and were drawn to Cornwall for work in the tin mining industry.
   
2. Drawing/Painting – I’m a huge fan of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year and it has inspired me to have a go.  I bought some basic drawing supplies a while ago and have been using online tutorials to complete some basic drawings.  I also bought a small watercolour set but haven’t gotten any further than producing a ‘colour wheel’, which is lesson number 1.
   
3. Poetry – I enjoy ‘spoken word’ artists and really like the way they use words to convey  a message.  Often leading the listener in one direction before cleverly changing direction.  I’ve got no plans to become a published poet but will try to add one of my own creations to every blog entry.
   
4. Write a Children’s Story – I started writing a children’s book about the relationship between Luna and Hope, the first two dogs we adopted.  I spoke to an illustrator and decided on the narrative arc of the story.  That was a few years ago, so I need to dig that out and finish it off.  I’d really like to get that story published, but I’m thinking of self-publishing through Amazon.
   
5. Write a Novel – A much bigger undertaking !  I have an idea for a novel, but I’ve only shared it with close family.  Whether or not it has merit, I’ve been warned that ideas have a habit of being stolen, so I’m keeping it close to my chest.  The first step on this journey is to find a good creative writing course and to learn the basics.
   
6. Raise Awareness about my Health Conditions – Most people that know me, know that I require dialysis because I have almost complete kidney failure.  What most people don’t know is that I will need to dialyse for the rest of my life due to having received a cancer diagnosis in 2022.  Whilst running tests for issues I was having with my gall bladder, a scan identified tumours on the head of my pancreas and upper bowel.  The medical term for them is Neuroendocrine Tumours, or NETs.  They are slow moving and can persist for a long time without causing any issues.  What it means, though, is I can’t be a candidate for a kidney transplant.  A kidney transplant requires the recipient to take immunosuppressing drugs to avoid rejection.  Cancer thrives is an immunosuppressed environment.  I’ve not openly spoken about the NETs before, but plan to do so going forward.
   
7. Start a Podcast – My youngest son, Jack, is also a mad West Ham fan and we want to pilot a West Ham-based podcast where we offer our respective views.  Given than I was 41 when Jack was born, we truly represent two different generations.  With the help my oldest son, Matthew, we hope to be able to offer a different kind of podcast to the numerous ones that exist already.
   
8. Find a Way to Give Back to the NHS – I owe so much to the NHS, especially the Royal London Hospital.  Whether through fundraising, or by finding a way to volunteer, I’d really like to contribute in some way.  I know they’re always looking for people to abseil down the side of the building in support of the Air Ambulance, so maybe I’ll give that a go !!
   
9. Run a Rescue Dog ‘Half-Way House’ – The biggest and boldest ambition of them all !  My wife Kate currently runs a dog daycare company but also works closely with the Underdog International charity.  Underdog work with dog shelters in Easter Europe, including Cyprus, and matching dogs to prospective owners is a huge challenge.  What we’d like to do is to run a rescue dog refuge where we could take in dogs from Eastern Europe and allow them to ‘decompress’ in a safe environment.  It would allow prospective adopters to meet the dogs and make a more informed decision.  We’d also like to be able to care for dogs indefinitely if they’re not finding a match or are more senior.

It certainly looks like a lot written down, but it’s reassuring that I’m not going to be bored anytime soon.  Most of the projects are going to be slow burners, but I’ve been working on complex projects for most of my working life, so feel well equipped to succeed.

For anyone that’s made it this far, thanks for your time and attention.  As I said when I started, I’m not sure if this blog will capture anyone’s imagination, but I will listen to any and all feedback and tailor updates accordingly.