post run thoughts whilst making tea




The route I run when taking my daily exercise allowance takes me past the entrance NHS staff take into the Lister Hospital.  This morning, for the first time, strewn across the ground were thrown away gloves and a mask.  I have seen posts on facebook drawing attention to this and realise I have interpreted these ‘edited’ photos as a judgement on poor behavior; because context and location are unknown.

In 2012 I was lucky enough to work on the Olympic and Paralympic Games and privileged to be at the first technical dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony.  I took pictures, and as instructed by Danny Boyle, ‘Kept the Secret.’  But I’ll never forget my emotions, thoughts, feelings reaction to all that unfolded in front of me, and the glowing reviews the morning after the Ceremony.  In seeing those discarded gloves and masks this morning, I remembered how we had on that glorious night in 2012, on a global stage, celebrated the NHS… and I questioned, again,  how we have, and have not, looked after the NHS since then.

Last night I watched the 10pm BBC news for the first time in years ( I am usually in bed by then) and saw the report inside an ICU fighting Covid 19.  My thoughts go to those nurses and doctors not only when they are on the ward, but as they leave the hospital after another 12hr + shift.  It is complex and politics is a fundamental part of the complexities… but for now these nurses and doctors are human beings and I wonder about their mental health, and wonder whether those strewn gloves are indicative of how these human beings ‘feel’ as they walk through those exit gates needing to feel the physical embrace of a loved one, and how they need more than an 8pm hand clap.


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