Johnblog

Long time no blog. It has been a strange and upsetting few weeks. My best friend Mike Markham recently suffered a massive brain aneurism while in Bolivia on holiday with his wife, Eunice. He was in a coma and unresponsive. They moved him to a better clinic in Santiago, Chile. My sister Vivienne flew with their two boys, Ben and Jack, both at University, to Chile to see Mike and support Eunice. After a couple of weeks they flew him back to Sydney in an air ambulance and put him in intensive care at Royal North Shore Hospital. Mike’s trip had been partly for work and his employer had good travel insurance, thankfully. Jan and I were able to stay with him there with the family. We were with them when the doctor explained there was no hope of recovery and the decision was made to remove life support. Mike, who was 63, died shortly after.

It was a gruelling ordeal for family and friends. There was a huge turnout at the funeral. Chris Jones put together some music and pictures to show at the ceremony and
reception. Eunice, Ben and Jack spoke movingly at the funeral. Mike was a good friend to many people and a valued colleague and mentor. The picture shows Mike with Eunice, Chris, Vivienne and Jan at a Christmas holiday break in 2007.

I also had bad news about a flying friend, Phil Unicomb, a flying instructor from Maitland who has trained many aerobatic pilots. He was injured in a plane crash. He was flying a “drunken pilot” routine at an air show – something he’d done many times over the
years. This time something went wrong and while attempting a “bouncy” landing he
hit the ground very hard. The plane stayed upright but was a writeoff. Phil
managed to walk away from the wreck (pilot definition of a good landing!) but
then collapsed. He was taken to hospital where they found his back was broken in
three places.

I went up to Newcastle to see him in hospital (taking, at his request, a bottle of single malt whisky) and he told me that a pupil and friend was a back surgeon and had used a new technique on the worst of his shattered vertebrae. They drilled into it and injected it with bone cement to hold it together. So he avoided having screws in his back and metal rods to hold it together. He was groggy and in pain but we had a good chat. He’s keen to get back in the air and keep his joyflight and flying school business going. The Australian Aerobatic Club is holding a benefit training day to raise some money for him, which is a good idea.

What can I say? Makes you think about life. Makes me sad.