Ben signs off from bucket list blog

Hello Shropshire. Well, unfortunately my health is still continuing to decline and I feel it is time to sign off from my weekly column writes Ben Hughes.

Thank you for allowing me the pleasure of writing to you over the past few months. I hope you have enjoyed reading the blogs as much as I have writing them.

For my last column, I will put about some of my favourite memories from my life and what they mean to me. Again, thank you each and every one of you for all your support. It has helped my family and I through a very tough phase of life. All the very best to you all.

I suppose my first vivid memory from childhood was when I broke my leg. I was four and playing football in my friend's back garden when I mis-kicked the ball and fell down a step, breaking my left femur. I was left in traction for six weeks in Shrewsbury Hospital. I remember receiving some dinosaur egg soap which in the middle contained a toy dinosaur - what ever happened to these??

Another memorable moment from my childhood was the kids TV show Knightmare. Every Friday, I would go to my nan's house and wait until this came on with Treguard the dungeon master and all the perils that the dungeoners faced. If you haven't seen it, somebody has uploaded all epsidoes from the eight series onto YouTube - you should try and catch it if possible.

After Knightmare sometimes Channel 4 showed re-runs of the 1960's Batman series, which again I love and may have some influence over my funeral plans.

Football fever

Sport never really caught on with me until I was aged around seven really. I played a little - although after breaking my leg at such an early age I perhaps should have given up - but never followed a specific team.

My uncle Mike kept badgering me into supporting this team called Manchester United. So I went with the flow and, if asked, that was who I told people that I followed. It was during the 1990-91 season that I first felt any real emotion towards football, but when it came it was strong.

It just so happened that my first season of supporting them ended up with Manchester United beating Barcelona in the Cup Winners Cup final. The first ever game that I went to was in November 1991 against West Ham, where we won 2-1 with goals from a very young Ryan Giggs and Bryan Robson.

I was fortunate enough to meet the United squad a week before I had the heart and double lung transplant four-and-a-half years ago and quizzed Ryan about that game and goal and he remembered it.

My favourite moment as a United fan would obviously have to be beating Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. The emotion and jubilation of achieving that was just amazing. I certainly lucked into the right time to become a Manchester United fan.

School was not a great time for me, but I do look back on some of my teachers with fond memories. I went to several schools, including Meole Infants/Juniors ( my first teacher Mrs Chidlow was so sweet from what I can remember), Maesyhandir in Newtown (Miss Jones was a great teacher and we were her first class), Crowmoor (Mr Pritchard was my teacher there and a great guy he was along with Mr Malalay who ran the football team there - see I still couldnt give it up) and finally I went to High School at Wakeman. My favourite teachers there were Mrs Beasant - although she was a right task masker and a supply teacher called Mr Arshad.

I have also been abroad twice, once on an Anglo-Austrian exchange and once to Amsterdam. The Austrian one was very surreal as I exchanged with a lad called Max. We were both 13 years of age and think we both enjoyed seeing each other's cultures.

Over there I spent more time with his lovely mother as Max had his own things to do over there. I got to watch the Salzburg football team play, visited the castle and these delightful gardens with a water park in, where water squirted at you from random places.I still keep in contact with them both, but more Max's mum.

Then Amsterdam was a reward for finishing my GCSE exams. I went with my mate Mike and my nan. Whilst there we visited the Amsterdam Arena, went on a tour of the canals and ate at a lovely Argentinean Beef restaurant. I even noticed a coffee shop there in my name.

I've had several jobs. My first proper job was at Burger King on Pride Hill, before I progressed to Petit Delice in the square. Again, my health interfered and I had to leave there. I was out of work for a period before I landed a job with a car transportation firm.

I left there a year later to land my dream retail job at Virgin Megastore. Music was a big part of my life back then and I'd managed to help out a band called The Others and even witnessed them performing a gig on a tube train. They were very welcoming to me and always invited me to their gigs.

I'm still in touch with them all and recently met the guitarist in Brighton. Through The Others and my work at Virgin, I have made some great valuable friends, Glen and Richard.

Precious memories

However my most precious memory is the day of marrying my wife. Ayla is an amazing woman who has been through so much, so young and is going to be left behind when I'm gone.

I was pretty ill on that day, but all of the pain and illness went away for the day and the wave of love carried us through - like it has done for all seven years of our partnership.

I feel truly honoured to have been her husband and leaving her is the hardest part for me to get my head around. We had hopes and dreams and aspired to make plans for a great future.

I hope that she is able to achieve everything she wants out of life and, even though I will no longer be around, I hope that she knows that I will love her forever, wherever I am.

The same can be said for the rest of my family. My mum has had a pretty tough time of it in life, but she always looked after her kids as best she can, which as a single parent is pretty commendable. She may think that I don't love her, but I truly do and I just hope that she gets a bit of luck now and again as she certainly deserves it.

My dad played an important role in my life and I've been lucky in that he has always been there for me. There came a time when I was aged ten where I had to leave my mum due to circumstances beyond her control and my dad stepped in and took me in for my teenage years and provided for me.

He's not the most emotional of men, but I enjoyed our times fishing and our late night cruises - if only he had gotten into football.

My nan has also played a huge role in my life and always been there for me bless her. Many a time she has offered advice and help in all manner of ways and I am eternally grateful for it.

If I can leave her with one message, apart from a massive thank you, it would be that she needs too slow down and think of herself instead of always thinking of others.

Finally to my brothers and sisters - I have been fortunate to build a rapport with them all except one really, but that's not her fault as she is still quite young. I'm happy and content that she will know who I am and I'm sure she will be told tales of me and look at photos and know who I was.

As for the others I hope they all grow up into wonderful adults and a credit not just to their parents, but to me as well. Toby seems to be doing well for himself, which is good. He just needs to find a girlfriend...

So that's it Shropshire. Once again, I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your lives over the last few months. Take care and I wish you all health and happiness for evermore

Ben x