BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY ELEVEN: CHRISTMAS WITH… CNTW CEO; JAMES DUNCAN

Welcome to Day Eleven of Blogmas 2022

 

Today, I’ve teamed up with the Chief Executive of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW); James Duncan to bring you a bit of insight into his Christmas…

 

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? 

 

Yes loads. I used to always go for a pint (or two) in Sunderland but that is long behind me. Now it’s a long walk with my wife and the dogs, a Chinese with the family, starting Christmas dinner prep and sort of helping fill the living room with presents

 

Who will you be spending this year’s Christmas with? 

 

 Morning with Dena and the boys, then with my brother and sister and their families. I’m on dinner duty this year

TEN THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SAY

1.      “I’M TWENTY-EIGHT!”

It’s like I wrote in my blog post on my twenty eighth Birthday (February 1^st 2019), when I took my first overdose aged eighteen (in 2009) I don’t think there was a huge concern that I wouldn’t make it to my next Birthday because the overdose wasn’t really life-threatening and I think people just assumed it to be a ‘one-off.’ But by 2012, when they’d calculated that I’d taken over 60 overdoses in the space of three years and I ended up on life support, I think people became… ‘concerned’ is probably an understatement… especially after I ended up on life support in Intensive Care.

2.      “I LIVE IN A BUNGALOW”

So often I get asked questions about my ‘flat’ and I’m so proud and lucky to be able to correct people with ‘I live in a bungalow.’ It’s sad that I only got this home because I’d been in a psychiatric hospital for two and a half years and so I was high priority on the list for a council property. But I could’ve just been housed in a crappy little flat! We dubbed my little bungalow my ‘forever home’ but as I progress through recovery, I can see that it’s almost inevitable that I will move at some point in the future but for now, I’m grateful for my little one-bedroom bungalow! 

24HRS WITH... NORTH EAST AMBULANCE SERVICE CEO; YVONNE ORMSTON

24 hours with... North East Ambulance Service CEO; Yvonne Ormston

Why have you chosen to write about today?

_{Ok here goes. This is the day that I have chosen to blog about after being asked to by Aimee. Why me? I can’t think people would be particularly interested in the day in the life of an NHS CEO, especially this one, but who knows? If there is something useful then hopefully it will inspire someone, somewhere about something!!}


Good morning!



What time did you wake up?

_{Alarm goes off at 5.45 am}


Why did you wake up at that time?

_{A little earlier than my usual 6.30. Today I’m off to London}