Hope is when someone listens to me,

when they hear what I say.

Hope is when tomorrow is another day

and not just yesterday again.

Hope is daffodils and a bright shining light

at the end of a VERY dark tunnel.

Hope is feeling happy or at least normalised

when pain goes intolerable.

Hope is the spring that will come soon

and bring along the flowers that bloom.

Hope is that a solution may be found

to release me from the pain,

that there’s better times to come.

Hope is having another day to spend

with my children and grandchildren.

Hope is friends out there we can turn to

for ‘been there done that’ advice

& ‘this is how I coped with it’.

Hope is successful treatment

and seeing tomorrow’s dawn and sunset.

Hope is breath for many years to come.

Hope is not for today. For today, to get out of bed, is all I can do

and its hours and hours before I can lay down my head.

But hope is for tomorrow, when all will be well

and this is the story I myself will tell.

Hope is like the sea that touches every part

of our planet no matter where patients live.

Together we can build “A SEA OF HOPE”

that anyone & Everyone can either dive

into or just “Dip their own toe”.

Hope is to do some, to do it yourself,

that tomorrow is as good as today.

Hope is when someone listens to me,

when they hear what I say,

when they hear what I say.

Aspergillosis Support Group Poem

written with Caroline Hawkridge, Writer-in-Residence,

National Aspergillosis Centre.