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"I'm normally so active in the community that I'm known as the 'Go-to Lady'. My kids get annoyed because when I walk down the street everyone knows me and I'm always stopping for a chat. But during the pandemic my husband was dangerously ill with long COVID for about a year which was so worrying and scary. He's only in his early 40s, but he couldn’t move or get off the sofa for six months and lost drastic amounts of weight. Yet the doctors told him it was all panic attacks and stress! I had the kids at home too, so we were all sheltering and I had to be so careful about where I went and what I did. So I focused mainly on sharing information via Zoom calls, our local church and Social Media - about things like kids’ free meals, pharmacies, vaccination centres, food banks and online help - and connecting people.
"I've long been involved with the Friends of Silkstream, which is dedicated to improving the health of the river and its tributaries and the surrounding environment, and when we did the Thames 21 event, which aims to put healthy rivers at the heart of community life, kids turned plastic recycled bottles into boats and raced them. I'm also part of Bora (Burnt Oak Resident Association) which was set up with the help of CommUNITY Barnet which promotes an effective voluntary sector to enhance the quality of life for all. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time nagging the sports centre, schools and shops to get involved in art and cultural projects designed to cheer up the area. Cleaning and getting rid of the mess has to come first, otherwise you're just decorating it. So, although obviously we all needed to socially distance, I still help with organising litter-picks throughout the pandemic, because there was just so much rubbish and fly-tipping everywhere. There's a big Nepalese community here so we encourage them to be involved, and my kids have helped with various litter-picking since they were about 3 or 4 - they're 9 and 16 now. By the end we'd collected more than 50 bags of rubbish from the park. Helping is infectious, it spreads. It feels really good to cheer people up and ease their burdens, and when you need their help they're more likely to offer it too."
"I'm normally so active in the community that I'm known as the 'Go-to Lady'. My kids get annoyed because when I walk down the street everyone knows me and I'm always stopping for a chat. But during the pandemic my husband was dangerously ill with long COVID for about a year which was so worrying and scary. He's only in his early 40s, but he couldn’t move or get off the sofa for six months and lost drastic amounts of weight. Yet the doctors told him it was all panic attacks and stress! I had the kids at home too, so we were all sheltering and I had to be so careful about where I went and what I did. So I focused mainly on sharing information via Zoom calls, our local church and Social Media - about things like kids’ free meals, pharmacies, vaccination centres, food banks and online help - and connecting people.
"I've long been involved with the Friends of Silkstream, which is dedicated to improving the health of the river and its tributaries and the surrounding environment, and when we did the Thames 21 event, which aims to put healthy rivers at the heart of community life, kids turned plastic recycled bottles into boats and raced them. I'm also part of Bora (Burnt Oak Resident Association) which was set up with the help of CommUNITY Barnet which promotes an effective voluntary sector to enhance the quality of life for all. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time nagging the sports centre, schools and shops to get involved in art and cultural projects designed to cheer up the area. Cleaning and getting rid of the mess has to come first, otherwise you're just decorating it. So, although obviously we all needed to socially distance, I still help with organising litter-picks throughout the pandemic, because there was just so much rubbish and fly-tipping everywhere. There's a big Nepalese community here so we encourage them to be involved, and my kids have helped with various litter-picking since they were about 3 or 4 - they're 9 and 16 now. By the end we'd collected more than 50 bags of rubbish from the park. Helping is infectious, it spreads. It feels really good to cheer people up and ease their burdens, and when you need their help they're more likely to offer it too."
"I'm normally so active in the community that I'm known as the 'Go-to Lady'. My kids get annoyed because when I walk down the street everyone knows me and I'm always stopping for a chat. But during the pandemic my husband was dangerously ill with long COVID for about a year which was so worrying and scary. He's only in his early 40s, but he couldn’t move or get off the sofa for six months and lost drastic amounts of weight. Yet the doctors told him it was all panic attacks and stress! I had the kids at home too, so we were all sheltering and I had to be so careful about where I went and what I did. So I focused mainly on sharing information via Zoom calls, our local church and Social Media - about things like kids’ free meals, pharmacies, vaccination centres, food banks and online help - and connecting people.