During times of hardship within a community, there is the possibility that people can look to focus on themselves only and not consider the needs of others or the wider community. What people may not be appreciating at this time is that we are all considering others through our current actions; by following the guidelines from Government, especially in relation to self-isolating and social distancing, we are all doing our essential part for the benefit of our entire country.
In addition to all of us doing our part in this manner, there are many stories and examples of others attempting to do more. We have all seen the many challenges and activities on social media which are focused either on supporting people to remain connected or to raise money for charities. Of course, the biggest and potentially most inspiring example of this is the endeavours of Captain Tom Moore.
As we all know, Captain Tom set himself a challenge of walking 100 lengths of his garden with an aim to raise £1000 for the NHS, at the incredible age of 99! As news of this spread and videos of him were shown across the world, donations came flooding in and, to date, the amount raised is a staggering £28 million. This is an amazing achievement with an outcome which will save many many lives.
At the heart of this achievement is a man who is selfless. Regardless of his age and his own frailties, Captain Tom simply saw a situation happening where others needed help and he knew that he could provide this in a small way (little did he know!). Serving his country is clearly in Captain Tom’s DNA with his decorated military career being clear evidence that he believes he has a role to play to ensure that people of his community and country are safe.
The attitude of generations such as Captain Tom’s, present as inspiration for our current generation and there are many examples of that to see at the moment. One which is close to Harlow Green hearts is the efforts of a former pupil who has only recently moved on to secondary school.
Lola Daglish has decided to raise money for the local charity – St Chad’s Community Project – by doing 100 reps of an exercise everyday for 7 days. Her aim was to raise a few hundred pounds but this aim changed to £1000. Currently, the total raised stands at a mightily impressive £2085! This money will support the charity with emergency food parcel distribution for families across Gateshead. From the staff’s perspective, we know that Lola is an individual, like many of our children, who thinks about others and so we are not completely surprised by this achievement but, nonetheless, we are extremely proud of her (click here to visit Lola’s funding page).
As we continue in lockdown, there will be increased pressure on us all and it is essential that we look after ourselves properly. We need to have to time to relax, time to talk to family and friends and we must ensure that we are keeping busy with a range of activities. If we are well, we can then be in a situation where we can think of others.
Although we will not all raise money for charities or complete physical challenges, everyone should be proud of how they have changed their everyday actions which is helping keep everyone in our community safe. Every day you are choosing to be selfless: when you choose to stay at home, when you choose to do only one shop per week, when you pass someone on the street but make sure you have given them space to do so, when you have chosen to contact family and friends via phone or online rather than physically.
Times are difficult but your selflessness will help beat the virus and will have a positive impact upon our community in many other ways.
Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives.
