A TALE OF DISAPPOINTMENT

A few months ago I was asked if I would speak at a National Stroke Foundation event, I pondered over this for a few minutes and thought to myself that this could be really good. I went back to the person and gratefully accepted stating I'd be really pleased to do this.

After this brief conversation I walked away from this thinking I should read up a bit on public speaking and prepared myself mentally with standing up in front of 100 or so people, talking in detail about my stroke, what happened, how this affected me, setting the scene and going into details of what I went through in the hospital, rehab and the subsequent 10 months. Overall I thought that this would go for at least 30 mins;So this was about 4 months ago and the daunting event was heading directly for me during this time.


I asked my wife to come with me as I felt I needed this moral support and we'd been through this journey together. So we both had arranged with our employers to take this day off, Jac infact had to postpone a day in a spa that she'd been awarded through work.
 
So today I realised that I hadn't informed the NSF that I'd be bringing one guest and called them, I was informed this would be fine; so that was sorted. I was then told I receive the run sheet for the event as I'd asked about the duration of my session.

I received the run sheet and was gob smacked that I was being asked to speak for 5 mins. I was being asked to travel over 2 hrs one way by my own car to stand up for 5 minutes to talk about the most serious event in my life that had taken the past year to overcome. OMG how insulting.

I then immediately rang them and advised them that I was not attending for a 5 minute stint on stage to act as the "Stroke Survivor" roled out to be presented to a paying audience. So although I believe that having someone to speak about an event that has taken both mental and physical endurance to the edge of tolerance could be really great, I will not be a poster boy as a "Survivor" as this doesn't benefit anyone.

I am not desperate to stand up in front of an audience for 5 mins, I imagine it would go something like this: " Good afternoon, my name is Tony, I'm 46 yrs old, married, 2 adult children, worked as a project manager was a little overweight and have had a stroke."

Wow AA seems like a real walk in the park.