A retired teacher who received a transplanted kidney from his wife has launched a poetry book as a ‘thank you’ fundraiser.
Bill Taylor had a career as a secondary school English teacher, but in retirement discovered his kidneys were failing after having an unrelated blood test.
Despite not feeling poorly, he was told he would have to go on dialysis if a transplant donor could not be found.
“I couldn’t bear the thought of being stuck on a machine for all those hours,” said Bill, who lives in Nassington.
“I was fortunate because at Leicester General Hospital the specialist Professor Michael Nicholson has developed a way of using a live donor who was not the same blood type.
“This meant my wife could give me one of her kidneys.”
Thanks to the research of Professor Nicholson and the kindness of Bill’s wife, Jan, a successful transplant was carried out and Bill has continued to enjoy a busy retirement
A former cricket player himself, he is still an active member of Nassington Cricket Club, helping to keep the grounds maintained, the bar open, and its social media up to date.
Bill has also found more time in retirement for writing poems and set himself a loose target of writing one a week.
“I’ve written since I was at school and found some poems from back then in the loft – and my goodness, I was angst-ridden,” he laughed. “But one or two might make it into my next poetry book.”
Bill was Stamford’s Poet Laureate in 2014 and is the ‘Bard of the Beer Festival’, writing poetry on display for people to read at Peterborough Beer Festival on The Embankment each August.
His first poetry book is called Old Men Should Not Wear Shorts and covers a range of topics, some humorous and others taking a more sombre tone and touching on themes such as love, war and religion.
The book cover was designed by Mercury cartoonist John Elson who was, back in the 1980s, a pupil of Bill’s at Jack Hunt School in Netherton, Peterborough.
Old Men Should Not Wear Shorts costs £7 with proceeds to Kidney Research. For a copy, contact Bill on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/BillTaylorFacebook
Pint of Poetry takes place at Stamford Arts Centre Gallery Bar in St Mary’s Street from 7.30pm on the last Wednesday of every month.
People can take the opportunity to perform their poetry to an audience, or to enjoy the poetry of others over a drink.
