I am sure you are all watching the news and thinking about our NHS colleagues and what they are going through. I hear stories most days about what is happening at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. There is enormous pressure on our front line staff, but not just them. We are remembering the porters, caterers, cleaners and all the behind the scenes support staff. Clinicians used to a wide range of patient care and treatment have been drafted in and retrained to work with severely ill Covid patients. Wearing PPE is tiring and makes the wearer thirsty and hot – yet our front line staff are wearing it for hours and hours on end.

What can we do to say how much we are thinking of them? Our Charity has set up a special page where we can leave messages of support and let our NHS colleagues know they are in our thoughts. Please take a moment to add your message – it will mean so much. Please go to the Chare and Share Noticeboard to tell them they are in our thoughts and in our hearts as they go through this day after day.

We are also asking companies to help by donating goods, especially cold drinks so our colleagues can keep being refreshed wherever they are. Last lockdown we had wonderful gifts delivered from hand cream to chocolates and from bananas to flapjacks. If your company can help in this way, the Charity team is standing by to make sure your gifts to our colleagues get to the right place – and they will make such a difference. The gifts themselves will be welcome, but also the thoughts behind the gifts.

We hope that this crisis passes, we will emerge to a calmer period after that. So please send your thoughts to our brave front line staff and also see if you can help in any other way with gifts to show we want to play our part too.