It doesn't do to think too deeply on these matters.
A few years ago, in an idle moment, I totted up the figures given by various scientific researchers and the like + those issued from time to time in utterances made by Government ministers.
You know the sort of thing: "Smoking is responsible for 2,150,000 deaths per year" "Heart Attacks Kill 3.5 million people in the UK" "Obesity is the biggest drain on the NHS it causes 5million deaths a year" "1.6 million die each year from infected wounds" "3,700 farmers commit suicide each year due to bankruptcy" etc etc ~ all good headline grabbing stuff.
Anyway once I had added them all up, or at least all those I could find on the internet, I looked at the national statistics for deaths in the UK and bugger me if several tens of thousands fewer people had actually died than was the total of those claimed in these pronouncements.
All that said I sympathise with anyone who has a "terminal or debilitating illness" ~ never sure if it is worse for them or for their friends and families.
In my own case I feel very sorry for myself at times and at other times I simply accept matters are as they are and look back with fond memories on a life well lived. It cannot be easy for the wife and kids I know so I try not to let my own fears show too often.
On the positive side I was told 6 months before my 42 birthday that I would not live to see it. I shall be 62 in July. So much for Doctors!
