Hi all,

Matthew is improving day by day and getting stronger.  We are still on restricted visitors for a while and it is likely that this will stay for well until after Matthew gets in to rehab. We will let you know when we can start to allow others in. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

I was a little naughty and we did manage to break the ICU rules today in a bit of a surprise visitor for Matthew.  Thanks to my good friend Louise. A nice way to lift spirits for him and the boys today…..

And an e-mail to Rachel’s great friend Louise, who organised the visit, and to whom we are so unbelievably grateful:

Dear Louise,

From the Ames family, we would like to extend our deepest thanks to Alan, and the team behind him for arranging the visit earlier today. To have such a great sporting legend visit our Matthew was an honor and was a lovely way to lift his spirits at this time in his journey. The boys and Di  were delighted to meet Alan, and Matthew thought it was awesome. He feels very lucky, in his words. Go figure. Alan is clearly a great guy and to take time out made a lovely difference to our day.

Thank you, Rachel.

And finally, a note from me (Kate). Di related a funny story about letting the ICU staff know there was a visitor coming in the morning, and asked another one of our favourite ICU people (they all are actually) Dave whether it would be OK for a visitor to come outside the normal visiting hours. Dave said he would have to check with Ann, who was running the unit at the time. A little umming and ahhing until Di revealed that it would be Alan Langer. OK then. All good from Ann’s perspective. Dave asked ‘Who’s Alfie Langer’ (he’s English and a recent arrival). We laughed. Thanks to the ICU staff for being so accommodating, because it’s a really busy time of the day.

So Alan really is a legend. He came, he spoke for some time with the boys and Matt, and it was a really bright moment that hopefully is one of many to come.