It’s been quite a week! Throughout, a number of people have stood out as being incredible, and I’d like to pay tribute to some of them in this week’s blog.
On Saturday (18/3/17), I did my first park run of the year (second one ever). Chatting to the members of my wonderful new running group, The Prestwich Plodders, I discovered a lady who had been having chemotherapy, yet still came out to run 5k each Saturday morning. Another lovely lady had just finished a night-shift as a midwife, and yet after finishing her run, she was kind enough to wait for me at the finishing line to cheer me on – delaying her sleep by a good fifteen minutes!
During the run, I often found myself near a lady with a guide runner. She did a mixture of running and walking, but I found myself wondering if I would have the courage to run at all if I couldn’t see anything.
All of these ladies made me determined to keep running regardless – that day and for the future.
Wednesday found me working in London -fortunately far enough away from the terror attack not to be directly affected. Those unfortunate people who were in the vicinity, and who either witnessed or were injured in this act of terror will carry that scene with them forever. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.
What stood out for me though, was the man who stayed with a lady nursing a broken leg, at great risk to himself, because who knew if there would further incidents to come? He waited with her until the emergency services had the resources to attend to this lady. His bravery and compassion are truly to be commended, and I hope that his actions get recognised officially.
I ended the week at the East Midlands Writing Conference, a thoroughly enjoyable event, where I met many lovely people and attended some interesting and useful workshops. The closing keynote speaker was a man named Nikesh Shukla – the author of The Good Immigrant. He spoke about his frustration in growing up as an Englishman who was constantly categorised for the colour of his skin. He went out and did something about it. The Good Immigrant is an anthology of writings by black, asian and minority ethnic writers. The description on Amazon is far better than any I could give, so I’ve pasted the link below:
Nikesh also works with young people in Bristol, and his next project is to give these youths a voice, so that they too can make themselves heard and understood by the wider population.
So, what with one thing and another, it’s been an interesting week!
Wishing all the mums out there a very Happy Mother’s Day x
