Dear people of Broxtowe,
It is Good Friday and Easter is normally a time of coming together with friends and family be it for an Easter egg hunt or to attend our local church service but due to the coronavirus we cannot join together. Similarly, to many people in Broxtowe I will not be able to be with my wife, Caroline, and my two children; however, I will be spending time with them virtually. Please do enjoy this Easter weekend but remember to stay at home, to protect the NHS and save lives.
Thank you to all of you who have contacted me so far about your ‘Broxtowe Heroes’ and please do keep those nominations coming in. I would like to introduce you all to the first COVID-19 Broxtowe Hero: Jamie O'Grady, who is a community-minded publican of the Foresters Arms, Newthorpe. Jamie is a public-spirited chap and he has been involved in many community-focused events in the past. He will be dressing up as an Easter Bunny (made by Debbie Mantell) and he will be delivering free Easter eggs to the children around his local community in Newthorpe as part of his Easter Egg Mission. Jamie will be delivering carefully at a distance to those who have requested help as otherwise, the Easter Bunny would have missed them. Included are children of families that have been self-isolating. More information about Jamie’s Easter Egg Mission, including his proposed route, can be gleaned from the Foresters Arms Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/forestersArms700/ He most certainly is a good egg!
To nominate your ‘Broxtowe Heroes’ please contact me, initially by email darren.henry.mp@parliament.uk and tell me about your local Broxtowe Constituency Hero that you think deserves a public mention from their MP. This could be a Broxtowe Constituency resident who has gone the extra mile or is at the heart of a community project or is working extra shifts on the front-line or is volunteering during this coronavirus pandemic. Please contact me by email with their name, what they have done or doing, and location. I will then contact you to find out more and aim to include them in my updates in a ‘Broxtowe Heroes’ section.
I was grieved to hear today of the death from COVID-19 of the father of a friend and resident of Broxtowe. My thoughts and my prayers are with his family at this terrible time. In Broxtowe, as everywhere across our country, we are together in our trepidation, in our worries for our families and friends, for our neighbours and our colleagues. As I know from my own experience of having to be away from loved ones, all of us have been touched by this merciless pandemic which has changed the way we live and work.
As your Member of Parliament, I want to express on behalf of all the people of Broxtowe our profound thanks to all medical staff and care workers here and throughout the country.
We can all do our bit to defeat Coronavirus. I will be working throughout this weekend. Happy Easter, keep safe, stay indoors and save lives.
Darren