A hero of our times

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Whenever you hear veterans talking about their experiences – and it’s often with reluctance - a common thread runs through their reminiscences: the bond of comradeship. One feels they would be prepared to lay down their lives for their pals, their mates. Recently one did and happily survived.


Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher a Royal Marine from Solihull whilst serving with 40 Commando in Afghanistan, was on a night time reconnaissance mission when he stepped on a trip wire. Thinking he was going to be killed he made a spit second decision to twist his body and throw himself on the grenade hoping his back pack would shield his comrades. Miraculously he escaped with a nose bleed and a headache. He saved his friends from, at the very least, serious injury.


Aged 24 Matthew has been awarded the highest award for bravery given, in the absence of the enemy: the George Cross at an investiture at Buckingham Palace.

He said: “It is a great honour. I don’t really think about what I did. I don’t tend to dwell on it. There are a lot of other people in Afghanistan who have done similarly courageous acts who haven’t been recognised. When you are in the heat of a gun battle there are always people doing heroic things and they don’t always get picked out for it. They are just doing their job.”


He said in July this year: "I felt a bit guilty for setting the device off. I thought that the best course of action for everyone including myself was to lie right next to the grenade, point my body armour towards it with my day sack and take the brunt of the explosion and see what happens from there."
As Matthew says he’s not the only one ‘just doing their job.’

Teenagers

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They have had a terrible press recently and it is very worrying. Even here, at the week-end, a man was found dead in the town and two teenagers are in custody.

To redress the balance let me tell you about two girls. I feel especially proud of them because they are both pupils at my old grammar school.

My school news letter tells me that both Nansi and Claire have been awarded a Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Award which is for young people who show outstanding courage when faced with serious medical conditions.

Nansi has cystic fibrosis and has to have physiotherapy before school each day and at the end of each day has to do 4-5 hours of sport. She takes 50 pills every day and another 15 pills each morning to ensure she has the right vitamins.

Outside of school she plays netball, hockey and handball for three teams and excels at horse- riding, representing Greater Manchester in dressage, show- jumping and showing classes. She spends spare time raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust has organised a staff hockey match, arranged school cake sales and street collections.

Now that she is sixteen, the CF Trust has asked her to give personal advice to families newly affected by cystic fibrosis.

Nansi was a member of one of the two netball teams that broke the Guinness World Record for endurance netball by playing for over 55 hours. Six hours before the end of the attempt she collapsed on the floor in agony and had to be carried off. However she said she could not let her team down and staggered back on and ended up on crutches for two weeks.

I’ll tell you about Claire tomorrow.

Two years.

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January 14^th 2006 I published my first post and now have 831 under my belt. Actually there was one before that on a green-edged background which is lost in cyber space – endlessly floating round like Bowie’s Major Tom.

I read somewhere that two years is the average length of a blog and as I would like to continue I have made a few mental notes to facilitate this:-

1 Not to panic when real life intrudes and I get behind with posts and visiting other bloggers.

2 To try to continue – at my own pace.

3 To try to brush up my technical abilities; I have improved – I can now add or subtract names on my side –bar, but not alas awards and two are waiting. I have got more awards than I deserve and don’t feel I should get any more but I’m most grateful for the ones I have. Thank you so much. And thank you to those of you who take the trouble to come back and plough through the stuff I churn out.

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Don’t miss latest episode below:)

A Confidence Booster

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This week I have been lucky enough to have A the above award given to me twice. First by Kenju and secondly by Eryl both are on my side- bar and both are writers I admire. I copied the paragraph below from Kenju (Judy)

“How does it work? Above are copies of the award that we can each distribute to those people who have blogs we love, can't live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful. I thought interested members could kick things off by publishing the award on their own blog, naming five people they would like to give it to (members or non-members), and accompany the image with three things they believe are necessary to make writing good and powerful. The recipients then do the same, passing it on to five other people, and so on."

So: three things I believe are necessary to make writing good and powerful.

Passion. To care so much about what you are writing you have to communicate it to others.

Diligence. To make a persistent effort to research, edit and prune and to get all the right words in the right order to achieve clarity.

The Inner voice. The voice that impels you to impart what is in your head and your heart.

This is my opinion. You may disagree.

The five I have chosen – and some of my friends have already been given this particular award. Virtually everybody on my side bar are worthy of it.

Johng In his own words:-

“I am 45, single, disabled due to an accident, broken neck, back and fractured skull. Damn falling trees!!”

I visit John on a daily basis to see what he is up to, with his visits to the pub, his love/ hate relationship with Keith and his unfailing good humour. He is very popular with both sexes and he inspires me to stop moaning and get on with it.

Randall Sherman is a lawyer from Missouri, Philosopher and Christian who I regard as a good, wise man although is of my son’s generation. He writes engagingly about his family, the outdoors and his passion for sport and although sometimes what he writes is above my head I don’t feel intimidated by it. I love his trenchant sense of humour and this is a quality all five share.

Zinnia Cyclamen was one of the reasons I started blogging two years ago. My son recommended I read her and I have been hooked ever since. She is a non religious funeral celebrant and he blog at present is composed of short stories and posts on writing; she is presently writing a novel and shares the experience. She writes beautifully and often brings a tear to one’s eyes but there is also a mischievous sense of fun which often has me smirking.

FourD hails from Oldham – a Lancashire lad I have always felt a bond with. In his own words “Married, Mortgaged, Skint, Sober (at the moment) and according to my daughter Homer Simpson in the flesh.....”

His language can be appalling but his powerful writing about his abusive childhood has shaken me to the core and with that childhood he’s entitled to a few expletives. He is passionate about his family, music and justice and he paints vivid pictures with his words as he follows his rumbustious life style.

Guyana-Gyal

“I gon tell you stories, true, true stories. Like me gran'pa and me nanee and cha cha used to do, and they ancestors too. Take half, leave half, cry or laff. Enjoy the gyaff, what you learn is up to you.”

If you don’t already know my friend GG you have a treat in store. She writes about her life with verve and humour and has the blessed ability to make you laugh and cry. Her warmth would melt the ice on a bitter February day in Whitewell Bottom. Rock on GG!

My technical ability had completely gone to pot this morning and I am struggling but cannot manage the links. All five names are on my side bar. Please just click on them. Also although I have got the lion award on Word I am not sure it is transferring to Dashboard. If it hasn’t and you want to see what it looks like please click on Eryl.

I am mortified and will get the peas out