Remembering Nigel

IPF is a devastating condition where scar tissue, called fibrosis, builds up in the lungs. It’s a progressive disease, with many people having a prognosis of just two to three years of survival after diagnosis. Our supporter Becky Wood shares this moving poem that her dad Nigel wrote just days before he passed away from IPF in 2021.

Becky Wood, Asthma + Lung UK supporter
Published 12th July 2022
Becky

His poem takes us along his emotional journey from diagnosis and then through the progressive illness, while waiting anxiously for his saviour to come along from the lung transplant list, which sadly it never did.

 

Are you alright?

Are you alright?
Sound as a pound,
brilliant, sorted and cool.
Why should they doubt?
All functions seem fine.
It’s not just myself that I fool.

Are you alright?
Not really no,
but I’m keeping it under wraps.
You lot go on,
just give me a minute,
I’ll catch up soon... perhaps.

Are you alright?
It’s serious now,
things are not going to plan.
You carry on,
just leave me here,
I’ll hold out as long as I can.

Are you alright?
The game was fun
for a while it was all going fine.
Now it looks lost,
no change from the bench,
and we’re entering added time.

Alternative ending 2
Are you alright?
No, I couldn’t be saved
Sometimes that’s the way life plays.
Can I come with you
Wherever you go
In your thoughts for the rest of your days?

Alternative ending 1
Are you alright?
Much better, thanks.
I’ve got a new organ to play.
Race you to the top,
drink you to the bottom.
Breathe life into every new day!

Poem by Nigel Dowey (17.5.1960 - 26.5.2021)

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