A winter's tale: the tale of a dialysis patient on an eventful family ski holiday

Dick Cooke battles the odds to reach holiday destination! His story in his own words...




The flight was cancelled due to fog at Heathrow. We could queue with a thousand other disappointed travelers to try to get another flight, but what was the point? All the flights just before Christmas are overbooked anyway so we wouldn’t get away until after Christmas.

“We could drive.”

“All the way to Northern Italy?”

“Why not - it’s not that far. I did it on the motorbike last summer, though we stopped overnight half way.”

“I’d rather keep going and just drive through the night.”

“OK. I’ll call Eurotunnell and you get the cars back.”

“Yes, good, just hold a moment please. What about it girls - shall we drive then?”

“Er, OK.”

So, there we were disappearing under the Channel as I tried to arrange insurance and recovery and the mobile went dead in my hand. Thank goodness for satnav as we didn’t have any maps though we did have a couple of walkie talkies, and with one in each car we roared across Europe.

Our progress was erratic, tearing along the motorways for hours; sometimes half hours before stopping again. You see we had five women split between the two cars and they just got out of sync. So we were piddling our way across Europe like a couple of old dogs visiting lampposts. Particularly infuriating when as a dialysis patient I never have to pee at all.

Skiing is great for dialysed patients as all the hard work is done for you by lifts and gondolas. All you have to do in essence is to be able to stand up while gravity takes you back to the lift. I am not saying serious ski competition isn’t energetic. The tree trunk thighs of the mountain racers belie that. But just swishing down the slope lets us feel a speed and grace we aren’t normally capable of, and that feels great.

I don’t know if I would have gone skiing if we hadn’t been going regularly before I needed dialysis. I was lucky in that respect. Our whole family loves and looks forward to our Christmas’ together in the snow so I thought I should try. Even if I could do little on the slopes I could help out with the après ski and reading some good books would be fun anyway. It was a great surprise to find I had no real difficulty at all and though I am a poor skier I have got better since dialysis. Since saving energy improves your skiing it is a good activity for us.

The dialysis unit in Bormio is run by Erminea Fattore and all her nurses are impressively competent, unflappable and friendly. Language is no barrier as dialysis is the same everywhere and we teach each other a few words at the same time, which is fun. It’s a small unit, just seven beds and the equipment is as good as the staffing. They only use nurses for patient contact. The fully positional electronic beds have built in scales that monitor your weight as well as your blood pressure as dialysis progresses. If Carlsberg did dialysis units it would probably be like this one.

Every year they have a week of skiing in Bormio for the Italian Transplant and Dialysis patients. The games are open to strangerii, that’s us, so if any one else fancies it get in touch via the editor and I will see what we can organize for next year. Perhaps Eddie the Eagle will fly again.

Read about Dick's trip to compete in the European Transplant and Dialysis Federation Games