25 July 2011 Tompsett and Hawkins continue to improve
by Carolyn Tanner
Isabel Tompsett, who moved from Cambridge to Neath Port Talbot Hospital earlier this month, has now started physiotherapy.
Although she is communicating pretty well she is not always au fait with her whereabouts and her eyes are still not focusing correctly, but generally she continues to slowly improve.
"There was a big change in her when she started to eat again," reported her close friend Sally Randell. "She'd lost so much weight and she's like me - we've both got good appetites and love our food, so she's gradually getting her strength back. She can sit up and she goes outside in a wheelchair."
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The news regarding Richard Hawkins is also positive. He is reported by his aunt, Fay Down, to be getting stronger all the time, and he recently stayed for a couple of days with Fay and her trainer husband Chris, for whom he works. "The staff were so pleased to see him, and he them," said Fay.
Understandably he still gets very tired, but at the weekend he attended the Mid Devon Show, and he also enjoyed a day's racing earlier this month at Newton Abbot, where he presented a cheque for the Injured Jockeys' Fund and was interviewed on At The Races by Mick Fitzgerald.
He returns to hospital once a week for physio and aqua therapy, and will shortly be starting speech therapy.
