The beggar who wants to be a soldier

It was a Muslim friend who made me feel guilty about ignoring beggars — he always gave something, however small — so I started putting my hand in my pocket when I passed one of those huddled figures on the pavement.

Usually, it was just, drop a coin on the blanket and hurry on, but after passing a young guy every day at the same spot on my walk into town, I said hello.

And I began to learn that not all beggars are lazy, work-shy drug addicts, alcoholics or petty criminals.

Kieran, 19, said he didn’t like begging, he wanted to join the army — specifically the Royal Marine commandoes, but the army wouldn’t have him because he didn’t have a home address.

His last place, a Salvation Army hostel, had closed down and he was living rough.

If he could scrape together £16 (Sh2,300) he would get a bed for the night at the Backpackers’ Hostel, otherwise it was the streets.

Sometimes he shared his spot with another young man and one day I asked, “Who’s your mate?” “That’s my brother,” he said.

There were family problems, it seems, and the two boys were placed in care at an early age.

Did he ever see his father? “I saw him once last year, when he was in hospital.” His mother? A shake of the head.

I checked with the army recruiting office and the sergeant confirmed he would need a home address for any potential recruits.

Next time I saw Kieran he wasn’t begging, but sitting on a park bench.

He said he had been to the Royal Marine recruiting office in a different part of town and they had given him an interview and would get in touch in six weeks.

But what about the address? He had a social worker now and they would accept him in lieu.

“Are you optimistic?” I asked. He gave the kind of wary response that comes from someone who has suffered many disappointments.

Fingers crossed for Kieran.

***

How many sick people must have longed to hear the biblical injunction to the stricken cripple, “Take up thy bed and walk.” For Darek Fidyka, it actually happened.

“Paralysed Man Walks Again,” the headlines blared, describing a British-Polish initiative, which has been hailed as a huge medical breakthrough and a world first.

Professor Geoff Raisman, who led the British research team, said: “This is more impressive than man walking on the moon.”

Fidyka, 40, was paralysed from the chest down in a knife attack in 2010 when his spinal cord was severed.

In treatment carried out by surgeons in his native Poland, cells were transplanted from his nose to his spine.

The scientists believed the cells would provide a pathway to enable fibres above and below the cut cord to reconnect and slowly this is what happened.

For two years after the attack, the patient had shown no sign of recovery despite many sessions of intensive physiotherapy.

But three months after the surgery, his left thigh began putting on muscle and at six months he was able to take his first tentative steps along parallel bars, using leg braces.

Two years after the treatment, he can now walk outside using a frame.

Dr Pawel Tabakow, who led the Polish team, said: “It is amazing to see how regeneration of the spinal cord, something that was thought impossible for many years, is becoming a reality.”

And Professor Wagin el Masri, who has treated thousands of patients in Britain, said: “I have waited 40 years for something like this. These are findings of compelling scientific significance.”

Mr Fidyka said, “When you cannot feel almost half your body, you are helpless, but when it starts coming back it’s like you were born again.”

He still tires quickly when walking but added, “I think it is realistic that one day I will become independent again.”

***

Actual complaints received by a travel company from unhappy customers:

1. On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.

2. The sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.

3. They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.

4. It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.

5. I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.

6. My fiancé and I requested twin beds but we were placed in a room with a king bed. We want to be reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant.

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