I just finished reading The Diving-Bell and The Butterfly.

It is a complete testament to the human spirit.

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a French journalist and editor of fashion magazine Elle. When he suffered a “massive stroke” he awoke twenty days later completely unable to move or speak. As a result of “locked-in syndrome” the only movement he had was the ability to blink his left eyelid. Through a system of having the alphabet arranged from letters most commonly used in the French language to the least common, he wrote this entire book from his hospital bed by blinking when the correct letter came up - taking an average of two minutes per word. He wrote and edited the entire book in his mind.

It’s simply amazing what some people can do even in the most dire situations.

‘Here we come to the end of the road - that disastrous Friday, 8 December, 1995. Ever since beginning this book I have intended to describe my last moments as a perfectly functioning earthling. But I have put it off so long that now, on the brink of this bungee jump into my past, I feel suddenly dizzy. How can I begin to recall those long futile hours, as elusive as drops of mercury from a broken thermometer? How can I describe waking for the last time, heedless, perhaps a little grumpy, beside the lithe warm body of a tall dark-haired girl?’