Sorrel Downer is Unwell
Donation protected
Sorrel Downer made it through Spanish lockdown on her own - only now to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Which means another lockdown, and again she’s on her own.
You may know Sorrel from her time as a music journalist writing for Melody Maker, Smash Hits, Blitz etc or you may know her from her time in what we used to call Fleet Street and as a commissioning editor at The Evening Standard. Maybe from her years freelancing around the world, or from Costa Rica, or Cadiz or Glaisdale or The Welsh Harp in Charing Cross. You may know her from TV documentary work or as a Guardian contributor. Or you may just know her as a friend.
Last week she was diagnosed with breast cancer (after first raising concerns with the local village doctor in November) and next week starts 6 months of chemotherapy and injections, then surgery, then radiotherapy. The hospital has told her the next months will be very hard.
She’s worrying more about not being able to work, though she intends to try (personally I don’t think it’s going to be possible). All her work was put on hold last March because of COVID restrictions so she was limited to the nearby village or the province, with borders closed. She wasn’t eligible for financial support and scraped through on virtually no income and had been counting the days until her contracts starting again
Sorrel lives on a remote olive farm in southern Spain which, since COVID, she has been managing without the usual visiting friends, family, local help and volunteers. Managing an olive farm is not at all ‘Driving Over Lemons’ or a TV ad for Olivio margarine with happy peasants having lovely meals on trestle tables after a hard day. Not at all. It’s a beautiful place but her life there is physically hard.
The Spanish health care system is very good (despite being swamped by COVID cases) but there are no social services in her area, and no access to sickness benefit because what is currently deemed 'non-terminal' breast cancer is exempt. She thought about coming back to the UK to be closer to friends but because her cancer is aggressive and her chemo only days away, was advised to stay.
Once chemo starts she’s going to be tired, poorly and have no immunity. It’s very important that she doesn’t spend her time stressing about food, medicine and money but concentrates on her treatment and recovery. If you would like to contribute there are plenty of small things that will help:
She needs to keep connected with electricity, phone and internet. Especially the phone for emergencies as the farm is remote.
She needs help covering the basics: good food and her palliative medicines (the health system covers 60%).
It would be ideal if she could afford someone to do farm jobs one morning a week, and a person to help her with deep-cleaning the house on each day before treatments.
As there is COVID in the town and she’s not due a vaccine until after the summer despite low immunity, we’d like her to have enough to pay someone to deliver shopping or medicines especially when she’s not feeling up to it.
A ceiling fan in her room will be necessary, as well as mosquito screens and a water cooler for when temperatures hit the 30s.
Aside from that I’m sure that extra comforts such as headscarves and books would be good for morale.
She’s okay but lonely and missing her son George in Canada.
I’d just like to add that Sorrel is very private and independent as a rule, so having friends appealing for support does not sit well with her at all. I’ve had to force her to accept that this needs to be done. It’s important. Her point was that everyone has had a bad year but I think that her last 12 months take some beating. Also that if it wasn’t for a lovely friend who took her to hospital the cancer would have gone untreated - Get lumps checked.
Sorrel agreed on the condition that she can give back in kind in someway. As well as the olive oil (which is organic and excellent by the way), there’s the availability of free stays at the house in 2022, and advance copies of her novel in progress - somewheresville - which she is determined to finish by the end of her chemotherapy and have published by the end of surgery. (If there are any publishers out there, get in touch).
Please donate whatever you can to help Sorrel. In return I will provide regular updates on her recovery.
She’s missing friends and family and feeling a bit ‘homesick’ and so has been staying off social media.
COVID restrictions allowing I’m planning to go out there during treatments.
Thanks in advance for your help and generosity.
You may know Sorrel from her time as a music journalist writing for Melody Maker, Smash Hits, Blitz etc or you may know her from her time in what we used to call Fleet Street and as a commissioning editor at The Evening Standard. Maybe from her years freelancing around the world, or from Costa Rica, or Cadiz or Glaisdale or The Welsh Harp in Charing Cross. You may know her from TV documentary work or as a Guardian contributor. Or you may just know her as a friend.
Last week she was diagnosed with breast cancer (after first raising concerns with the local village doctor in November) and next week starts 6 months of chemotherapy and injections, then surgery, then radiotherapy. The hospital has told her the next months will be very hard.
She’s worrying more about not being able to work, though she intends to try (personally I don’t think it’s going to be possible). All her work was put on hold last March because of COVID restrictions so she was limited to the nearby village or the province, with borders closed. She wasn’t eligible for financial support and scraped through on virtually no income and had been counting the days until her contracts starting again
Sorrel lives on a remote olive farm in southern Spain which, since COVID, she has been managing without the usual visiting friends, family, local help and volunteers. Managing an olive farm is not at all ‘Driving Over Lemons’ or a TV ad for Olivio margarine with happy peasants having lovely meals on trestle tables after a hard day. Not at all. It’s a beautiful place but her life there is physically hard.
The Spanish health care system is very good (despite being swamped by COVID cases) but there are no social services in her area, and no access to sickness benefit because what is currently deemed 'non-terminal' breast cancer is exempt. She thought about coming back to the UK to be closer to friends but because her cancer is aggressive and her chemo only days away, was advised to stay.
Once chemo starts she’s going to be tired, poorly and have no immunity. It’s very important that she doesn’t spend her time stressing about food, medicine and money but concentrates on her treatment and recovery. If you would like to contribute there are plenty of small things that will help:
She needs to keep connected with electricity, phone and internet. Especially the phone for emergencies as the farm is remote.
She needs help covering the basics: good food and her palliative medicines (the health system covers 60%).
It would be ideal if she could afford someone to do farm jobs one morning a week, and a person to help her with deep-cleaning the house on each day before treatments.
As there is COVID in the town and she’s not due a vaccine until after the summer despite low immunity, we’d like her to have enough to pay someone to deliver shopping or medicines especially when she’s not feeling up to it.
A ceiling fan in her room will be necessary, as well as mosquito screens and a water cooler for when temperatures hit the 30s.
Aside from that I’m sure that extra comforts such as headscarves and books would be good for morale.
She’s okay but lonely and missing her son George in Canada.
I’d just like to add that Sorrel is very private and independent as a rule, so having friends appealing for support does not sit well with her at all. I’ve had to force her to accept that this needs to be done. It’s important. Her point was that everyone has had a bad year but I think that her last 12 months take some beating. Also that if it wasn’t for a lovely friend who took her to hospital the cancer would have gone untreated - Get lumps checked.
Sorrel agreed on the condition that she can give back in kind in someway. As well as the olive oil (which is organic and excellent by the way), there’s the availability of free stays at the house in 2022, and advance copies of her novel in progress - somewheresville - which she is determined to finish by the end of her chemotherapy and have published by the end of surgery. (If there are any publishers out there, get in touch).
Please donate whatever you can to help Sorrel. In return I will provide regular updates on her recovery.
She’s missing friends and family and feeling a bit ‘homesick’ and so has been staying off social media.
COVID restrictions allowing I’m planning to go out there during treatments.
Thanks in advance for your help and generosity.
Organizer
David Harper
Organizer
England