Thread 11: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...
2nd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found
3rd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video
4th Observer ‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...
Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn
Thread One www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 2 Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5370609-thread-4-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 5 Thread 5: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 6 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-
husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 7 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5375023-thread-8-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5376712-thread-9-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 10 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5378984-thread-10-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting. There are currently 10 items on The Observer website The real Salt Path | The Observer

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for ten very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path.

Does stolen fudge taste better?

A 15 year old son getting out onto the road would have been of serious concern if he had severe learning disabilities/severe autism for example. This isn't the case though with the Walkers' son who doesn't have those disabilities. It has now been clarified however that he was ten or so years younger when that happened, if it happened.

This could actually demonstrate a link I raised many threads back between Liverpool and Wales. The notion was speculative and garnered a level of caution among a couple of PPs who felt it was making an unnecessary and unfounded assumption. Nevertheless, my suspicion, right or wrong, was that the consultant who wrote a TSP book review in a medical journal has the identical list of qualifications after his name as one of the letters. I also raised at the time that he is based at both the Walton Centre and a Welsh university (Betsi Cadwaladr University) Health Board, the latter as a visiting neurologist.

Haha thanks for clarifying @DisappointedReader - I think I’ve become too much of a Nancy Drew for my own good, and am now questioning everything that RW puts out there 😂

Think missing something but does that not prove them ‘right’?

Prove who right?

I thought we were all Miss Marples, according to she who must not be named!

Definitely worth adding the Liverpool/Wales consultant link to the inconsistencies/timeline doc!

Are you sure you’re not Chloe H in disguise? 😂😂 Your sleuthing skills are 🔥 🔥 you’d be an excellent addition to the Tortoise Media team.

Also, if anyone did want to set up a Google doc or similar in which to set out the inconsistencies or timeline, I think there are ways in which we could contribute to it anonymously - www.reddit.com/r/googledocs/comments/v7uoec/how_do_i_share_my_google_docs_anonymously/

Raymoth - that their consultant links to both Wales & Liverpool?

Why would Raymoth forget where they had the diagnosis consultation though? Surely you’d remember something as important as that? Caveating with the fact I haven’t yet read TWS (only read TSP) but have ordered it (secondhand, for full disclosure…)

They already produced the 2019 letter which describes the CBD diagnosis as very doubtful, specifically because his condition has been stable for such a long time.
And yet in her 2020 and 2022 books he is still presented as suffering from a rapidly progressing deadly disease that can only be fought by taking long holidays heroic hikes.

I suspect you are correct - the initials on the 2019 letter being a bit of a giveaway. If this same consultant saw TW in June 2015 at the Walton Centre, this seems to add weight to the retrofitting narrative. Presumably he would be the ideal person to definitively settle the question marks surrounding the chronology of the CBD diagnosis. IF, there was indeed no 2013 CBD diagnosis, wouldn't this also put him in a bit of tricky position?

It could be that the consultant saw them originally in Liverpool but then, having the link with Wales, was able to see them there subsequently. Although given that they seem to have been in the south west from summer 2013, straight after the appointment where they got the bad news according to TSP, then I'm not sure it would actually be any more convenient for them on a practical level. Seems like this consultant was a key figure in Moth's treatment, anyway.

Do you have a link to the film review in the medical journal? The link I have accessed seems to have been taken down or removed.

Can you post the journal issue details @Catwith69lives ?

I think it is notable that the 2015 letter doesn't refer to a previous appointment / diagnosis and says instead that he was referred by the pain clinic

Surely such an important meeting and diagnosis would have been mentioned

Do you mean the RD/IH ? I don't understand why it is supposed to be clear that those are the doctor's initials, to me it looks like it could be anything.
Also, this particular letter is very doubtful of the CBD diagnosis, which does not fit with the gushing review imo.

The letter mentions 'my previous meeting with him some years ago'. That suggests to me that this consultant saw TW (in 2013?) and that they offered the diagnosis then of 'an atypical form of CBD', but that they haven't seen him again in the meantime till now. There's a reference to him being 'under review' but it doesn't sound like it was them doing the reviewing. Bit light on medical appointments for someone who in theory has a terminal illness.

does Anyone remember how long the Iceland walk was supposed to take. It was around end August / start of September 2019 I think, perhaps only a week long? The letter from the clinic in October 2019 talks of an ever present throbbing headache and transitory balance plus parasthesia in his feet and pains up and down his legs, all of which must have made walking quite tricky?

Well, yes, and in doing it lends support to the idea (speculative of course) that the consultant who wrote the book review could be TW's consultant. What that would mean, however, I don't know.

Meanwhile, the inconsistency remains that in TSP the diagnosis is in Liverpool while in TWS it's recounted in Wales (according to PP). Perhaps RW was getting confused with her own story because they've been to both places for consultations?

I had been thinking back recently about the whole NHS consultant situation. From my own experience with a family member, boundaries can become blurred when you have the same consultant for a number of years and also live in a relatively small rural community. An element of mutual trust, friendship and familiarity can develop in appointments over time. You might see each other out and about in the local area, you might have mutual friends or interests and your children might attend the same schools. When the patient is also a person in the public eye, that can be of interest to the consultant, be an equaliser in status and give the consultant some kudos - and something to talk gossip about - with colleagues. After the professional relationship has ended, a real friendship might develop out in the real world.

The trust a consultant has in a patient is particularly important when at least some self-reporting of symptoms and severity has to be replied upon.

A consultant knowingly reviewing a book by a patient's spouse - a spouse who also attends appointments - could be seen as a conflict of interest; as crossing professional boundaries.

To be clear, I don't know if the consultants in the letters released by the Walker-Winn-Wyns are the same person, nor if the consultant who reviewed TSP is Timmoth's consultant. I am not accusing the consultant/s of anything improper, just thinking possibilities through from my own experience.

RD corresponds to the neurologist at the Walton Centre and his qualifications correspond to those shown in the 2019 letter where he also works and the neurologist who made the film review in the neurologists newsletter. I assumed that the 2019 letter is from RD to IH.

I'll need to dig it out. Will post when found. I screen shot it eons ago. (Ps. It's a review of TSP book)

I've finished part 1 of TSP.
There are some weird incongruities.

After ten court hearings SW should have known that judges are not addressed as'sir' . It is 'your honour' or 'my lord/lady' if they are a High Court judge. She even has the barrister addressing him incorrectly. That would simply never happen.

I have never been addressed as 'ma'am' in an outdoor store. Has anyone? And why mention the assistant was 'skinny' ?

The poor dead ewe scene after the return from the court case made me sad but it didn't quite ring true. Jolly helpful for the narrative however. I will give her that one as poetic license.

I also picked up the diagnosis inconsistency as discussed above.

The 'previous meeting' reference is in the 2019 letter, not the 2015 one.
The 2015 sounds very much like that doctor saw TW for the first time.

The dead sheep also features in the previous Izzy Wyn-Thomas novel.