One last comment from Jane about Mr Broomhead's fusions

I was under Mr Broomhead, who performed a spinal fusion on me. I remember my parents telling me later on that the spinal fusion that I had was quite a new operation at the time, though I’m not sure about this – it might be worth checking it out historically. In my case, it worked very well – though the scar is a bit messy – and I wasn’t lame afterwards, like Florence, just a bit limited in what I could do. Maybe spinal fusions were easier to manage - after all, if you can't bend where the fusion is, you can bend a bit further up or down! So whilst I wasn't very supple, I could walk pretty well, play games (some better than others) and especially swim.

It might be useful to know, Florence, whether you arrived at MHH with rheumatic fever? Could you say a bit more about that when you have time?