Firstly, I want to thank you all for your prayers which have made a significant impact on my progress towards recovery, and which have been a huge support to Lissi as she had to negotiate both me being in hospital, and her father being admitted to a care home. I still don't have an absolutely definitive diagnosis from the doctors about what happened to me, but during the two weeks I was in hospital at the end of May, I lost a lot of blood, a lot of weight and a lot of strength and energy. I left the hospital free of the symptoms of this peculiar illness, but the first two weeks back at home were difficult. However, from the beginning of the third week I started to feel a lot better. My energy started returning, and I have also finally started putting on some of the weight that I lost. I am also able to start building back my strength little by little without feeling exhausted all the time. My blood test levels have started to recover well too, but the doctor has put me on a powerful medication until the end of August that has the common side-effect of causing headaches, often severe, as well as dizziness and nausea. I have agreed with the Chaplaincy Council that we will monitor how I react to the medication as I continue to recover, and so I will provisionally be on sick leave until the end of July. If I am free of the side-effects or have only a minor reaction to the medication, we will discuss an earlier return to Chaplaincy duties, but as things stand, I hope to be back at the beginning of August. Please do continue praying for Lissi and me, and I know she joins me in expressing our heartfelt joy and blessing of being part of the loving community that is the Chaplaincy of St Andrew.Be blessed,William
