Mortality, child care freeform rant

Suddenly I'm struggling with my mortality. The new and wonderful NHS called me in for a routine check up, something I've been asking for for decades (nearly) but is now apparently happening. I wasn't expecting anything to come up, and sure enough, the nurse was pleased with my diet and exercise, and, not unexpectedly, suggested I give up smoking. I explained that I was currently giving up caffeine as I'd grown an unhelathy dependence on my 10-15 cups of coffee per day and that smoking was next on my list, and she was even happy with this. She checked my urine and that was perfect and then took my blood pressure which was unusually low. Nothing to worry about, she said, but come back in a couple of weeks for another check. That I did, only to find it had dropped even lower, so today I spent the morning at the hospital having 9 tubes of blood taken for various tests - on thyroid function, T-cells, calcium levels, vitamin D, iron, etc etc. To be honest this has got me a little bit rattled, as despite various disabilities (Scheurmann's Osteochondritis and palindromic polyarthritis) I've always been fit and healthy, I was never expecting to have problems like this.
Part of the problem is that I fear I'm becoming my mother. Like me she had back problems, sciatica and also low blood pressure resulting in lots of dramatic dizzy spells and enough medication to make her rattle. Suddenly I've entered another age of life, which I've observed from a distance up till now. This is the age where daily pills are required to keep one alive, I remember adult friends taking blood pressure pills, cholesterol pills, pills for this and pills for that. I don't actually believe in the benefits of pills (which incidentally saved me from the hype of Ecstacy) so I'm not at all keen to go down that kind of route. Anyway, it was enough to cause me lost sleep while I tried not to listen to the beating of my heart.

Then life can always show you a deeper tragedy. Today I heard about a Jamaican woman who is dying of cancer. As she is not a British citizen she is getting little help. She is living alone on £35 per week with a young child and a baby to care for. The school, in their infinate compassion (not) are unable to take anything other than the full fee for her child's school meals, which at £7.50 per week, is a substantial proportion of her income. she is fortunate to have neighbours and friends who help her out, buying her nappies and food for the children, but I don't think this should be happening in our 'civilised' society. I'm appalled at how children are let down by us.

I work with young people experiencing challenges, yet the response of agencies like Connexions or Social Services seems to be to increase the risk to them. A young blonde girl of 16 from Richmond was put in a B&B in Southall, a place she had never even passed through before, while at the same time an 18 year old also from Richmond clearly stated that she did not want to live in Richmond because there she was at risk of violence. She was put in a hostel in... Richmond. Both these girls have had their risk unneccessarily increased.

We do not care for our children very well here, and that indicates to me that this is not a civilised society, far from it. How many children are being torutured as witches, how many are torn from their mothers arms because of social services inability to understand 'other ways' of parenting (and the earlier the better because they're easier to adopt), how many are involved in drug dealing, petty crime. It sickens me to think about how much abuse and neglect are going on, and how much I've heard about from the horses' mouths. If we can't sort this out there is no future.