Friday notes

Nice morning, in between the showers. Their progression can be watched on the webcam.

Yesterday, I spent a number of hours on a new local history project, namely the collation of names and information of those who gave their lives in World War II. One of the first from the islands to lose their life was a pilot, shot down over Germany on 7 September 1939 whilst dropping leaflets.

Once I've gathered all the names (close on 400), I'll start collecting portraits. There are quite a few of them, so I can see myself spending hours in the library scanning in all the images. I have not placed any information on the web, as I am in the process of putting it into an Excel file, then merge it into a Word document, which will then go into a Blogger site.

A woman from Ghana, who had outstayed her visa, was removed from the UK earlier this week. She has accepted that this was fair and within the rules. There is a problem though. Ama Sumani is terminally ill with malignant myeloma, which has caused kidney damage. She requires kidney dialysis three times a week. This is available on the NHS without charge, but costs £1,000 per month in Ghana, which the patient has to pay. When Mrs Sumani returned to Ghana, a representative of the UK embassy offered to pay the first three months of treatment, but the hospital said it could not help her, as no source of funding for on-going care was available. The lady had appealed against her extradition on compassionate grounds, but this was refused. She was removed from a hospital waiting room on Tuesday and put on a plane bound for Ghana.