‘Oh it’s great. I love being back at King’s. I’m planning to travel to Africa at the end of the summer term, to work in a bush hospital.’
I tell Mary we have to organise a two-month placement during the holidays. It will be a challenge travelling and working abroad, but I’m ready for it.
‘The hardest part will be leaving Ticket and Charlie,’ I confess. ‘But we can’t wait to go to Colorado again.’
Charlie and I are joining the Back Up course next year. It will be our first holiday together, as a couple.
Mary is about to ask me another question but Charlie rushes in, gumboots still on and wearing dirty jeans. His mother tells him to take the boots off. ‘He’s such a mucky pup,’ she adds.
I take his hand. ‘What’s up?’
‘Dad wants your help over something,’ he says breathlessly.
‘My help?’
‘Just come outside, it’s important. You too, Mum.’
‘Hey! What about me?’ Anna says, gulping down her coffee.
We grab our coats from the back hall. Mary wraps a scarf around me because she knows how cold I get. Anna pulls on some sheepskin-lined boots over her pyjama bottoms. ‘Come on, Ticket,’ I say, as Charlie leads me down to the lake. ‘What’s going on?’ I ask him.
Henry is standing by a deep hole with a spade, a bag of compost and a small baby tree. It must be about four foot high. ‘Oh good, Cass,’ he says, ‘you’re here. I want you to help me plant this.’
‘Right,’ I say with surprise, looking over to Charlie who nods reassuringly. ‘Sure.’
‘It’s a liquidambar,’ Henry continues. ‘I remember you saying it was your favourite; that you loved the way the leaves changed colour. I thought you would like to plant it in memory of your friend, Guy.’
Tears rush to my eyes as both Charlie and Mary come to my side. Mary holds the tree. ‘Make sure you get it straight,’ Henry instructs.
Charlie helps me spade in some of the soil over the roots. When it’s well covered, gently he treads it down and we fill up the remainder with the soil. ‘This is for you, Guy,’ I tell him. ‘Wherever you are, I hope you’re happy now.’ And finally I am able to tell him what I never managed to say the last time we were together. ‘I love you.’
Henry puts an arm around my shoulder and I thank him so much.
We all make our way back to the house, Ticket running on ahead.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many people I’d like to thank.
Firstly, Canine Partners, a charity that helps disabled people to enjoy greater independence and a better quality of life through the help of specially trained dogs. A moving article about a Canine Partner inspired me to find out more, and when I visited the centre to watch puppy training, I was hooked! I am in awe of these dogs that so transform the lives of people with disability. I’d like especially to thank Jenny Moir, who advised me about the training and how the process works. By My Side sticks as closely as possible to reality – but I was allowed a little artistic licence.
I’d also like to thank Nina Bondarenko. Nina started the Canine Partners Training Programme in 1992 and told me about the residential courses. She is so knowledgeable about dogs and their behaviour.
Canine Partners put me in touch with the following partnerships: Eileen and Sailor, Susi and Lex, James and Nemo, Judy and Kermit, and finally Jon and Varick. I was moved by the incredible bonds they shared with their dogs.
I’d particularly like to mention Jon Flint and Varick. Jon took so much trouble to tell me about his time in the Royal Marines and his experiences in Afghanistan, along with what life has been like since returning home after his injury. I met Varick, the most handsome flatcoat retriever, and was touched to see how much he has changed both Jon’s and his wife, Sarah-Marie’s, lives.
Another partnership is Susi and Lex. Horses were always Susi’s passion and she was determined to ride again after her spinal cord injury. I watched Lex, her beloved golden Labrador, running along beside her, ready to be called for help if she was ever in trouble. Lex, sadly, died at the age of twelve but he will always be remembered. He was Susi’s best friend, and without him she would have been lost.
To learn more about the charity please take a look at their website: www.caninepartners.co.uk
The second charity I’d like to thank is the Back-Up Trust— who like to be referred to as Back Up. Back Up is a national charity that has helped thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds rebuild their confidence and independence after a devastating spinal cord injury. Many thanks go to the CEO, Louise Wright, who told me about the courses Back Up run across the country and abroad, and who advised me on many aspects of this novel. To find out more about Back Up, please go to their website: www.backuptrust.org.uk
There are other people I’d like thank for helping me in so many different ways: Christopher Walker, army chaplain, and Ian Wylie, Royal Artillery, Afghan veteran. Sue Annesley and Peregrine Pollen. Many thanks also go to Kate – a fourth-year medical student, for telling me about her degree.
I’d like to thank my editor, Jane Wood at Quercus. Jane challenges me to bring out the best in my writing, and I love working with her. I’d also like to thank all the lovely team at Quercus.
To Charlotte Robertson, my agent, for always being supportive and getting behind this book. I very much value her support and friendship.
To Mum & Dad, as always – for being the best parents and for looking after me so well when I need to meet deadlines!
Finally, By My Side could not have been written without Sarah Orr, to whom the book is dedicated. Following her C7 spinal cord injury aged sixteen, Sarah returned to school. When I met her for the first time back in 2006 she was studying for a Masters in Human Rights. She told me about her experiences backpacking across the world. I discovered she went on a skiing course and worked for Back Up. She had also undertaken an independent tour of the twelve spinal injury units throughout the UK and Ireland to share her backpacking experiences with newly spinally injured individuals and healthcare staff.
More recently, Sarah has had experience developing peer support networks and other rehabilitation and support-related services and opportunities for people with spinal cord injuries in the UK, New Zealand, and a number of developing countries in Africa.
Sarah is an inspiration. Her life is tough in every way. Spinal cord injury is unrelenting but she has determination, spirit, humour, stubbornness, talent, grace and beauty. She also has endless patience! I have tested her to the limit with my never-ending questions and wanting to dig deep to find out what it’s really like to be in a wheelchair. It has been an honour to work with her and to become her friend.
Also by Alice Peterson
A funny and heart warming novel about love and loneliness, family and loyalty, lodgers and friendships.
What do you do if you're 34, single and recovering from being jilted two weeks before your wedding day? This is the dilemma Gilly Brown finds herself in. While friends are marrying, having children and moving into the depths of the countryside, Gilly finds herself alone in London and holding on to her fractured family with their tragic past. It's time to meet new people.
So, she decides to get a Monday to Friday lodger, and after a succession of alarming interviews finally finds the perfect one in the shape of handsome reality television producer Jack Baker. Gilly falls for Jack's charm and is transported into an exciting social whirlwind of parties, dining out and glamour. When Jack is introduced to Gilly's family and friends, it's only the attractive and eccentric Guy, the newest recruit to her dog-walking group, who isn't quite so convinced about Jack's intentions. As Guy watches them grow closer, his suspicions of Jack and his feelings for Gilly deepen. Is Jack so perfect after all... and what exactly does he get up to at the weekends?
Available Now
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Also by Alice Peterson
A romantic comedy about recovering from grief
and letting go of the past, Ten Years On is a moving, bittersweet read.
Rebecca is happily married to Olly and content with her job at a glamorous London art gallery. But when tragedy strikes, she decides to move back to her childhood home in the country, hoping time will help her to heal. Joe, born in the same country town as Rebecca, had a falling out with her a decade earlier. Now he's the successful owner of a wine bar, Maison Joe, and is breaking local hearts by dating a striking actress, Peta. Rebecca finds living with her parents again a challenge. Nor is it easy to discover that Joe lives and works too close for comfort. When she sees him once more, memories rush back to haunt her, along with unanswered questions about the past. Why did they lose touch? What was Olly hiding? Can Rebecca answer those questions and move on?
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A moving and honest account of family, parenthood and love, told with Alice Peterson's trademark warmth and wit.
Josie and Finn are happily married, with promising careers, and a gorgeous young son, George. But despite their apparently enviable lives, George's hyperactivity disorder means the days aren't always easy.
Josie’s best friend Justin has always been there for her, and when she finds out she's pregnant again she turns to him for support. She loves George, but it's just such hard work, especially as Josie takes much of the strain.
Finn is suspicious. What does Justin want in return for his help? And just how close are they really?
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Also by Alice Peterson
A wonderful novel about the search for perfection, about sibling love (and rivalry), and about getting life's priorities in the right order.
Bells is always writing to her sister Katie, but Katie never replies. Preoccupied with her glamorous career in fashion, her busy life and her boyfriend Sam, she just doesn’t have the time.
Then Bells announces that she’s coming to stay. She’s not a secret exactly, but . . . Sam doesn’t know she exists.
For Bells doesn’t fit into Katie’s perfect world.
But when Bells does arrive, everything changes for Katie. Perhaps her perfect life isn’t so perfect after all?
Please note this book was originally published as Look the World in the Eye
Available Now
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Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
About the Author
Also by
Dedication
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Acknowledgements
Also Available
By My Side Page 26
