Making the best of the bad

Olive struggled to hold back the tears as she shared her very personal and touching story of loss and pain. Her son, Ricardo, died a young man from a rare disease, vasculitis. In basic terms, vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels in the body, in real terms it is easy to misdiagnose, hard to treat and even harder to live with.

She has founded the Ricardo Lee Foundation to promote her son’s the legacy and awareness of the disease its symptoms and treatments. With assistance and support of her family physician Dr. Michael Bandbury, who is also Chairman of the foundation, Olive has lobbied to stage an annual medical symposium through the University Hospital of the West Indies to educate local doctors, For more information call the Foundation at 876.846.4498. May God bless Ricardo.

In fine Smile style, it certainly was a twist when Harry Toddler clad from orange hair to clothes stepped in to encourage us to travel safely. He too was personally inspired by the tragic premature death of his friend and colleague, Craig Dennis. Doing what he does best, Toddler used his music to communicate the message that we all must take responsibility for our own road safety. It’s not always about the party but actually arriving at the party.

Looking at another serious issue, we received information, guidance and comfort from Leachim Semaj and Yvonne Wilks as they elaborated the features of the upcoming RJR Sports Foundation Symposium – Yes You Can. Leachim introduced us to the principle of social capital: GNG – grow t’ing fi nyam an’ gi weh. Interested? Me too! The symposium will be on Saturday, March 14 at the Police Officers Club.

So, enough of the heavy (but important) stuff. Time for fun, and we did have fun with brother/sister team Jana and Rupert Bent and their amazing BRAND JAMAICA product, Shaggy Parrot and the Reggae Band from their Reggae Pickney line of children’s product. A year of development by a large team of persons resulted in this full colour, hard cover story book and 15 track music CD. It’s available for sale … buy two; one for the deserving child in your life and one to sell on eBay 20 years from now; it will be well worth it.

Another set of Jamaicans doing us proud are the ladies in the synchronized swimming team … yes, synchronized swimming. Dianhann Campbell and Amanda Eyre will be staging a cocktail party to raise funds for our synchronized swimming team to represent the country at the Carifta Games in Aruba next month. They need a million Jamaican dollars and you can contribute by attending the Aquatic Art In Motion – An Evening of Water Dynamics on Friday, March 27 at the Stellar Marris Aquatic Complex.

We wrapped up the morning with an engaging discussion with Soca Queen Allison Hinds, Saltfish Culinary Challenge reps Debe-Ann Lange-Chen and Jean Lowrie-Chin and long time Linstead friend Dr. Audrey McNab for Pet Vibes.

Speaking of wrapping up, we wrap up Cross Country tomorrow in front of the Rodney Memorial … see you there.