Did You Know?
His name was Flemming, and he was a poor Scottish Farmer,. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screeming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsmans sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you" said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life"
"No, I cant accept payment for what I did" the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.
"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"Ill make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his farther, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of."
And he did just that!
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time graduated from St mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterwards, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog, was stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Someone once said: "What goes around, comes around"
amazing story, never heard that one before. :045:
The popular story of [url]Winston Churchill's father[/url]'s paying for Fleming's education after Fleming's father saved young Winston from death is false. According to the biography, Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution by [url]Kevin Brown[/url], Alexander Fleming is quoted as saying that this was "a wondrous fable". Nor did he save Winston Churchill himself during WWII. Churchill was saved by [url]Lord Moran[/url], using sulphonamides, since he had no experience with penicillin, when Churchill fell ill in Carthage in Tunisia in 1943. The Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post on [url]21 December[/url] 1943 wrote that he had been saved by penicillin. It is possible that, as sulphonamide was a German discovery, and there was a war with Germany, that the patriotic pride in the miracle cure of penicillin had something to do with this error in reporting.
Sorry to disillusion you but according to Wikipedia (yes, I know it's not always correct) this story is a myth.
Love
Sunanda xx
Of course it's a myth, but it's a good one.
Both, are great stories, because they tell stories of ' Great Men '. We all need peers and heroes in our lives. People to look up to and admire.......even if sometimes they are mythical characters, and stretched truths...
Oakapple xx
I like the story about Martin Luther King's wife.
Thanks Oakapple, I know its a myth but its a story that makes you think.. It's nice to think that you will be rewarded for the good you do others.
daisychain - I don't know the Martin Luther King story, could you tell me?
thanks