HELP FOR HEROES

Help for Heroes, for those who don't know, is a charity set up by a couple of people who were moved by the plight of injured/maimed troops returning from Afghanistan. The charity Bryn and Emma Parry founded has, to date, raised £27 million. That is amazing. These are the types of people that the British Honour's system was actually intended for. The ordinary man or woman off the street who did something over and above what is normal day to day achievements or work.

I'm not saying only ordinary people should be awarded or recognised, it can be for anyone at all. It could be celebrities, sports people, politicians, whatever. The problem is that these days the Honours are given out to people who are doing a normal days work. Usually people who are already being feted and fawned all over and have wonderful life styles with hardly any, or no, money worries.

It is not meant to be for footballers, golfers, cricketers, show business people, politicians or council workers. Yes, some of these categories may be entertaining us, but they are very highly paid for doing so. They are also given many freebies and are invited to all manner of dinners and events without having to pay a penny out of their own pockets. They have a wonderful life style.

Then you get the people who go to work every day in jobs they hate just in order to bring in a meagre wage packet. What they earn is barely enough to survive on in some cases and they certainly aren't given much thanks for the jobs they do. In fact, most today are treated in a disgusting way by their bosses and companies. With very little left over once bills are paid, if anything, they don't go to gala dinners, premiers or get given designer clothes to wear. No, and yet these ordinary people are the ones who often put themselves out for others. They are the ones who do the most extraordinary things to help make other people's lives better.

How sick has this Honours list become when it is now full of people who are doing something they are well rewarded for anyway. It is high time the people of this country who do outstanding work were repaid. Not the little local councillor who is usually full of his/her own self importance. Why should they get an honour There may well be the odd exception to the rule like Ian Botham whose reward was well deserved for all of his charity work. If he had been awarded a gong for his cricket prowess I wouldn't have been impressed at all. All celebrities, no matter what category that falls into, should only be awarded an Honour if they have done something other than their jobs. The same goes for MP's, councillors and anyone else who thinks they should automatically get one without earning it.

The sad thing is, that it is the same old story, you rub mine and I'll rub yours. I wonder how many of Gordon Brown's close chums will get a major gong in the next Honours list. How many singers, sportsmen/women, actors, councillors, MP's and similar will be rewarded for doing just a day's work that they're paid to do? Don't forget, we'll also have the token lollipop man or lady, school cleaner, one teacher out of many thousands and probably a dinner lady thrown in just to pretend it's an Honours list for the people. Just how unintelligent do these people think we are? I wish to take nothing away from these people, but why exactly do they deserve an honour? Have they done something extraordinary that we know nothing of? No, it is the Governments idea of trying to fool us and pretend the list is not full of their friends.

I would like to see Bryn and Emma Parry, honoured for the incredible achievement of setting up Help For Heroes. They are the sort of people the list should be full of. If there aren't that many people who have done something extraordinary, then don't hand out so many gongs. They are becoming so commonplace as to mean almost nothing now. I can guarantee that Bryn and Emma will have spent an awful lot of their own money trying to set this charity up. Not being celebrities, they will have had to work blood, sweat and tears to get the charity off the ground and heard of. They couldn't just telephone an agent and say "get me on T.V. to publicise my cause" No, they had to do it the hard way. The way none of these so called celebrities will even begin to comprehend. I can probably also guarantee that they are not millionaire friends of the Prime Minister. The money they spent out of their own pocket will have cost them dearly I should imagine.

When you start anything like that, the costs are enormous. I know, I did it myself once in a small way. They don't get help, and unlike a millionaire to which a few thousand means nothing, it means the difference between eating or not some days to ordinary people. For all I know, Bryn and Emma could be worth a fortune, then again, they probably aren't. What they have got is more than money can buy, They have a pure heart and soul. They have what so many people in this world today lack, kindness and a wish to help others without wanting something in return for themselves. In their eyes, their reward is seeing these injured people being helped.

Well done Bryn and Emma. If this darned Government don't give you what you truly deserve, then I know God will. your rewards will be far greater than anything this world can offer. God Bless you both,

Lorraine.

IF ANYONE READING THIS WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THESE TWO MAGNIFICENT PEOPLE, THEN GO TO;-
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/