The world has undoubtedly changed over the last few months since the emergence of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Our lives are truly unpredictable at the moment; there is no telling what is around the corner, how current circumstances will change nor to some degree what our lives will be like ‘afterwards’. As you know, sadly, the Boys and I know about uncertainty, unpredictability, and not knowing what life will be like ‘afterwards’ at the extreme end of the scale; it has been a year now since the day that changed our lives forever.
On Wednesday last week, Polly would have been 52. It was so far away from her 51st, and final, birthday which we spent biking around the south coast to Monkey World. On Friday last week it was exactly a year since Polly, innocently waiting at a junction, was driven into by another driver. So violent was the force, her car was pushed into that in front, and Polly sustained the severe head injuries that she would not recover from. Since my life changed, I have been searching for purpose and I think I have found it: giving something back; emulating something Polly did every day of her working life. I now understand why she was so passionate about ‘her patients’.
Back to today: I’m volunteering again. I am part of my community Hub, and I’m on GoodSam, but they haven’t called yet. So, I meet up with an eclectic team that has been energised by the Formula 1 legend Ron Dennis: his vision is to provide 1 million meals to NHS workers, in awe was he by their work to save lives during the pandemic. Our task; to convert a cold and draughty disused aircraft hangar into a distribution hub. We already have some big names on board to donate food and ready meals in bulk, and then distribute them out to the local hospitals. Our job is to be the middle-man; design the process to receive the bulk items, break them down into units, box them up into meal packs and then load them into vans for delivery. We have logistics people, catering people, process people, data people, warehouse people and people-people. But our target is 10,000 units a day, so we are going to need a whole lot of volunteers to make it work; I hope the community responds.
Someone recently said; “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge.” I know I will.
#salutetheNHS.org
Thank you all from all of us. Polly would be very proud.