Do I Know You? is the blog written by Richard and Hazel Crutchley during Hazel’sbattle with a brain tumour.  The blog has been rewritten as a book.  Extracts are available here.

During the illness, Hazel experienced major brain surgery, radiotherapy, seizures, occasional mental illness and other diseases brought about by the condition, such as meningitis.  Following the radiotherapy, she suffered from degenerative sight loss and memory loss, and from the middle of 2005, was unable to form new memories.

Through the years from the loss of independence in 2005 to her death in 2008 from complications brought about by the tumour, Hazel wanted to pass on the things that she’d learnt through the experience and the feelings she had.  Adding to the support system established via the website, Hazel began to write a blog, with the help of the national brain injury charity, Headway.  This was a way to ensure those close to her, and those who knew her, were up to date with her progress.

However, Hazel’s deterioration in her final years meant that she could no longer achieve this, and it was up to her husband, Richard, to continue the blog and let those who cared know how she was.  The blog attracted followers from all over the UK, and from parts of America and Asia, though it was the core audience who visited it regularly.  Richard kept it up beyond Hazel’s funeral at the end of 2008, and catalogued the story to the scattering of the ashes at the Donkey Sanctuary in Devon in 2009.

Each of the extracts listed below is around 1000 words.

Extract I - Hazel at home

Extract II - Hospital 2007

Extract III - Towards the end of a long hospital stay

Extract IV - Early experience in the nursing home

Extract V - New Year 2008

Extract VI - Mid Year Frustrations

Extract VII - The days draw in

Extract VIII - After the passing