"Five Star Service on Ward 34"

My husband Is very sick. We spent 4 days on Ward 34 after palliative surgery and they could not have been nicer. I would leave them 100 stars if I could.

Being Russian, and used to a level of care that ventures beyond 'inhumane' and often dips into 'inhuman', he was in an almost constant state of shock at the level of dignity and respect that he was afforded. Virtually everything amazed and impressed him, but the one thing he particularly commented on after we came home was how not one of the nurses had showed any reaction or judgement towards him being transgender, or batted an eyelid when sorting out his catheter etc, or ever used the wrong pronouns.

He has lived through discrimination of the most horrendous kind, from loud announcements on all-male wards that he has 'transgender deformity', to withholding of his medication, and even refusal to treat him at all.

His surgery at the RLI has given him, at best, a few more weeks. But his 'treatment' - the way that all the staff actually treated him - has helped him to believe that his being 'different' does not equate to his being less worthy.

I am not a particularly Nationalistic person, but our experience on Ward 34 made me proud to be British.