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Invited speaker – Frank
Frank (aged 37 years) had been a member of the St James’s Hospital
mindfulness training course and follow up support group for the past
5-6years. He had developed a very stable, strong practice which
helped him to avoid relapse and hospitalisation since 2000 (he had
been hospitalised 27-30 times in the previous 20 years, generally for
months at a time, for severe bi-polar disorder) although he had been
given many other diagnoses between age 14 and 30). In so many ways
his recovery was remarkable and he attributed this primarily to the
benefits of mindfulness.
I invited him to speak to the group about his practice and how it got
stronger over the years. He did this very well and the group were
clearly captivated by his account and impressed by how recovered
Frank was now.
Frank added further that just as he got over his “little psychiatric
problem”, he was told that a nagging pain he had had in his side was
pancreatic cancer. He has known this since January 07 and the
prognosis is pretty grim. He spoke very openly about this, without
any extreme emotion and with a lightness of touch that was sensitive
to his listeners. Frank was not someone that would seek to “talk up”
his emotions or try to provoke upset in others. Quite the contrary, he
spoke simply, didn’t labour the point that he was almost certainly
facing death, but didn’t deny the reality of this and the challenge it
was for him emotionally.
The group were very deeply affected by the poignancy of his story
and a few shed tears. But they also heard how incredibly helpful
mindfulness had been through it all and how, when it came to coping
with intense

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