I didnt go through all that just to die now thankyou !!!!!

Heres some news , Im overweight with a heart condition, Mrs Cllr Gwilliam has her own health issues. Now both of us alongside our 12yo Freddie are trying to do something about that. We have joined a gym. Three times a week we go and I push and I pull weights and actually Im enjoying it. Its also just starting to take effect. OK Im not quite in the Anthony Joshua body category just yet, I haven't run any 5ks and my clothes are still more Jacamo than River Island but Im noticing a difference.The Gym is kept clean and sanitised, your checked when you go in and you have to book your slot. I think they let four in at a time which means that on most occasions its just the Good lady , our boy and myself.I feel better in many ways and I know some weights coming off because clothes doesn't sit the same way it used to. By the way, as an aside, when all the money is being thrown around, money off gym membership would have been a good call from the government at the moment Id say.Maybe "Work out ! Help out !

Anyway what prompted this new found love of bench pressing and cross training? Fear actually. Fear of where I was headed, fear of not looking good and fear of dying, That was magnified by the constant news reports of the tragic deaths caused by Corona Virus. Obesity, underlying health conditions,BME backgrounds all apparently add up to giving you some serious problems if you catch this thing. So I thought, well if Im going to catch it and its going to try and add mine to the thousand upon thousand of names listed in its obituary column, well I wasn't going to make it easy for it

All through this pandemic we have tried to do the right thing as a family. Self isolated when one of us had a cough or felt unwell in the early stages. We got involved with our community, we tried to help those that needed to shelter .We stayed home , we washed our hands religiously , we had food delivered from Vals or Tesco, walked the dog and didn't take him in the car. We only spoke to our eldest son via whats app, we never went to see the mother in law. We didn't hold house parties, we didnt go to work ( I actually left a job so I could "remotely " give the leadership of the FODDC the dedication it needed and didnt start my new one until I had time to do so), and now we wear masks when we go to shops or are inside public buildings etc. We have offered to be part of any vaccine or treatment tests . We didn't drive to Durham . Council meetings introduced the world of Zoom or Google meets. Like millions of other people, we did as we were asked to do, We didn't go out to pubs, we cancelled events that were dear to us, we didn't holiday and respected what we were being told.

All over the country , families, community and districts did these things as were were told that this was the way to defeat the virus, and the numbers seem to add up .Lockdown was hard, but it brought the deaths , the cases , the numbers, it brought them down and we could look to begin to open up again.

I understood the need for that, we needed to get something going in the economy again, we needed to begin to live. There was of course an upturn in those infection rates as we opened things up , but they were sporadic and manageable.

To manage these outbreaks we still have to accept that we cannot do some things that we might wish to do.Only this week , ward members in my area were forced to cancel their now annual Bank Holiday Coopers Road festival where the neighbours , perhaps fifty or so meet outside their homes and play music, tell some jokes and enjoy each others company, probably with a glass in hand , subject to weather and aimed at raising a few quid for local charities. They understood why it couldn't go ahead this year, no arguing, no moaning just that same attitude that most of the Forest and indeed the country has displayed since April.

So you dont mix in large numbers outside or in and we can keep cases down and therefore keep deaths down, seems fair enough.

Yet in a couple of weeks, we intend sending literally thousands of potential virus carriers to the same towns or villages, to the same buildings and to the same rooms.They will eat together, they will walk past each other maybe even talk to each other. All the data that its very unlikely that our kids can catch or be ill from the virus themselves and we are all thankful for that, But what about them bringing the virus home with them. Its suggested that children are unlikely to transmit the virus, so why was Freddie washing his hands every twenty minutes a couple of months ago ? why wasn't he allowed to go out and play with his mates? why has kids sport , cricket and football for Freddie all but been postponed for 2020 ? All those kids he isolated from for three months he is now told he must go and spend five days a week with.

I know Freddie and children like him can and have suffered from not going to school. He will however suffer more if his Mum or Dad catch a serious dose of this awful virus. The management and ultimate destruction of Covid 19 has to be all consuming, it has to be our main aim.

I hope that sending them back to school doesn't mean there is an acceptance of a certain number of transmissions, therefore an acceptable number of cases and even worse an acceptable number of casualties? I hope the schools can do as is suggested and keep our kids safe and keep this awful virus at bay. Society will also have to understand that some people will be genuinely frightened at this next step. Sending their kids out to school will be really worrying to many people.

Of course we will do as we are asked. Ive already ordered his shirts. Would it have been possible to suspend all education for 12 months ? I dont know maybe not.

I do know though that we haven't gone through all we have gone through this year just to let it get us now !!!