Alan Clarke interview, part two
Here is the second part of The Drum’s interview with Alan Clarke, co-director of The Bridge who has recently returned from treatment for throat cancer.
It all happened so quickly in the end (needless to say I hadn’t bothered to tell people I had a lump on my neck...it wasn’t a big deal) that a spontaneous reaction was all that there could be.
I think David, Frank and Margaret were so elated that we’d finally achieved the MBO and then so knocked off their stride that A. One of us had a very much life threatening illness and B. Instead of four of us working to achieve what we wanted/needed to achieve there would only the three that they simply had a knee jerk reaction. And that was to say “Off you go and do what you need to do, we’ll sort out The Bridge and see you when you’re better”.
This will sound cheesy but it actually sums up what is the strength of us as a group. No one is any more important than anyone else, no one is indispensable (in the nice sense, i.e. as a group we can make it happen) and any of us would look out for any other and do what’s best for that person. Cliché, cliché but it is team work at the end of the day.
Remember, I was literally in the office for only 10 days between doing the MBO and finishing for what turned out to be 6 months (but could have been forever..). I was only in the office for 11 days between first seeing my GP and finishing for 6 months. And I was only in the office for 6 days between getting confirmed as cancer and finishing for 6 months. There was no time to plan – we just had to react.
The full diagnosis wasn’t made until Friday 13 Feb...I wasn’t superstitious before... I am now.
A wee aside, before I had the surgery I was introduced to all the people who would work on me and shown the room I’d be brought to post surgery and where I’d wake up. When I did wake up I wasn’t where I expected to be. I genuinely thought I’d died during the operation because it didn’t look like where I’d expected to be… it didn’t look worldy, in fact it looked like I was floating in a cloud (remember,. I was full of anaesthetic). I very much remember thinking “Oh well, that’ll be it then”, and following that with a very contented feeling that life had been a bit of an adventure but I guess it was all over for me. I also thought there’s no rolling green pastures and gates so this ain’t heaven. Neither is there any flames and fire so it’s not hell either – I guess the big fella’s not made a decision on me yet.
As it turns out, I had visited the room during the day when the full lighting was on but I came round during the night when the overhead lights were off and the only lighting was low watt up lights near the floor which bounced off the plain white walls… hence it looking a bit like clouds! Needless to say I’m now no longer afraid of dying…unless my little for taster isn’t quite how it turns out to be...
Tomorrow Clarke explains the steps put in place by The Bridge to cover for long-term absence at the company.
The Bridge is a member of the Marketing Industry Network.