Dear Editor,

IN the letter I wrote last week in ‘YourHarlow’ I urged anyone who has any influence over the supply of PPE to our hospitals to do their upmost to ensure our nurses, our Doctors, our paramedics and of course our carers, have everything they need to do their jobs. That’s not to mention other front line emergency services such as police and fire officers. I would of course continue to make that plea as I expect every single politician of every political colour will continue to do.

However, that’s not why I wanted to write this letter. I just couldn’t scroll past the article written today stating that the number of deaths from coronavirus at Princess Alexandra Hospital has now reached 159, as well as the terrible news coming from Tye Green Lodge care home, and not reflect on the huge human tragedy which we continue to see unfold not only across our town but also across the country.

159 people, that’s 159 families who have had their lives ripped apart by this awful virus. These people are our brothers and sisters, our mother and our fathers, our friends and our loved ones. We should never allow ourselves to be able to normalise these sort of numbers. When the UK death toll caused by covid-19 rose above 10,000 I tried to imagine how many people this would be and such a thought brought tears to my eye.

When all this is over, and I know a lot of people have been saying that, I hope that we’ll all try and be a bit nicer to one another. Every time we get annoyed by someone in front of us driving slowly or about the amount of time it takes to queue up in a super market remember how precious life is. Every time we feel the need to have a go at someone either in person or online try to recognise that they may have experienced some terrible heartache themselves.

In the words of the late Caroline Flack, if you can be one thing in this world be kind. Like most people I have plenty of faults and plenty of people who are ready to point them out but I hope that I can try to be kind to people a little more often, even when sometimes its hard.

Until then I say once again stay safe!

Chris Vince
Cllr for Little Parndon and Hare Street.