Eddie

Charity begins at home

Hello again, I had a birthday recently. I have had quite of few of these, so please understand if I don`t recall the precise number. I only mention this because of a card I received from my 6year-old grandson Joseph. His was a handsome handmade card, and it contained a particularly unusual greeting. He said, “I hope you have a spectacular day.” His ultra positive encouragement made me smile, but then Joesph regularly makes us all smile. He also reminded me that life should be enjoyed even when everything might seem to be less than joyful.

We are living in difficult times. Good news is hard to find. Our list of woes is formidable. We have a “cost of living crisis”, striking nurses, striking railway men, potholes in the roads, an NHS in strife, a war in Europe and, we are told, an impending climate tragedy. Apart from all that, everything is going well!

Life has taught me that we will all experience some troublesome events. The challenge is, of course, how we cope with them. There is always inspiration at hand.

It was the King James bible that first coined the expression “from the mouths of babes etc” and our Joseph`s good wishes proved the point and certainly jogged my senses. I did have a spectacular day, despite the impending doom and I am now motivating myself into a positive mindset.

There are many reminders of our present troubles everywhere. The newspapers, TV, and radio bombard us relentlessly and it sometimes feels as though there is no escape. Take a trip to your local high street and you will see a forlorn display of empty shops and other premises. Town centres look far from vibrant these days. It is notable that we now see “charity shops” growing in number amongst the empty ones. These shops thrive through helpful commercial arrangements, but largely through the diligence and dedication given freely in every corner of our country by the volunteers who work there

We must acknowledge that millions of us are currently finding life pretty stressful. The old and frail are, in particular, enduring immensely difficult problems. If, however, we look at our world from a slightly different perspective, we can still take a slightly more optimistic view. There are endless examples of kindness and generosity to be found on

Eddie Peacock has worked in the mobility industry for “rather a long time”. He enjoyed a challenging career having started by selling wheelchairs, scooters and stairlifts for Sunrise Medical, eventually working his way to the position of UK sales manager. After a period as a self-employed consultant he was invited to manage movingpeople.net, then Handicare Ltd, in