For all of us, it’s been a year like no other.
For nurses and doctors fighting Covid-19 – day after relentless day, death after tragic death – it has been a year from hell.
Their days have no comparison. The emotional grief they take home every night, or every morning, after yet another punishing shift, is unimaginable.
Yet, mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted, they turn up the next day to continue the battle. Again and again.
Just like the heroes we met this week at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, which treated the UK’s first Covid-19 cases a very long 12 months ago.
Some have been there since the start, treating and comforting patients with the disease, unable to let those in their care see their family or friends.
They work longer than their designated shifts and go home with the constant worry of giving the disease to loved ones.
None of them could have predicted the long haul they were in for but they all hope the vaccine will prove the way out.
We share their faith. It’s another compelling reason for taking it as soon as possible.
And we echo the plea of intensive care doctor Sarah Platt by saying – for their sake and yours – please follow the rules.
The gift these heroes give to the nation, to the fabric of civilised society, cannot be adequately rewarded in praise, in the deserved applause they got last year, or in the long overdue pay rise they deserve this year.
But a bigger pay increase than the one Boris Johnson appears prepared to grant would at least go some way to recognising the value of this uniquely dedicated, utterly matchless army of heroes.
