Zoe: It's not what you know...

I've been thinking today about the strange number of connections we have to Great Ormond Street. Gav's first humble little office was in Rugby Street, on the corner of Lamb's Conduit Street. In his first year we spent Christmas Eve in the Lamb and it is now where we would hang out if Sonny's well enough to go to scouts on a Tuesday evening. I'd often take the kids to Coram's Fields too while Gavin was working over the weekend and we'd all meet up for lunch at Ciao Bella being vaguely aware of the people passing by our table pushing their kids in wheelchairs, often accompanied by a nurse and a drip stand. I'm still numb to think that we have become one of them. We are fortunate that we know this area really well - where the bus stops and where to get a good sausage sarni (Sids if you are interested) - some families arrive here having never visited London before which must be absolutely terrifying for them on top of everything else that they are having to contend with.

We also know people at the hospital. Our lovely friend Jo works at the school here along with one of Gav's colleague's mums (which mean's he gets a nice teacher and fun work) and one of Sonny's real teachers has a sister who is a very senior nurse here. She pops in from time to time to say hello on behalf of school and occasionally has to nurse him. Our mate Andy also has a chum who is a nurse on Safari, the outpatients ward that we hope to get back to someday. But the strangest coincidence happened today when we met with Sonny's consultant to discuss the results of his latest biopsy. She explained that the lab had sent it to UCH to be looked at by a larger team of specialists who would be running more tests on it. The professor heading up the team turns out to be Sonny's headteacher's father... no pressure, but if he hurries up we can get him back to school a bit quicker!