The milk of human kindness

This afternoon I went to a fundraising event organised by a Facegroup group called Mums in Durham. The event had been organised to help a local mother-of-four young children who is terminally ill with cancer (with only weeks to live) and who had a house fire not long ago, leaving her homeless.

This awful situation is unimaginable to most of us, and something we would hope never to have to face. When we hear of terrible things happening, and there are sadly so many reported in the media on a daily basis, it can evoke a sense of helplessness in us; we know that other people are suffering in so many ways, but often their situation feels too far away from us to do something about, or there seems too much suffering to know where to start with helping to alleviate it.

This afternoon's event was a reminder that there are things that we can do to help, and great things are often achieved as the result of lots of individuals coming together to do their bit, however small it may seem. Today was a result of a group of local mums who had heard about Dawn's story and thought "yes, we can do something to help". They couldn't take away what was happening to her, but they could let Dawn know that she wasn't alone in her time of need, and that many others cared about what was happening to her.

The event took only six days to organise, and this was detailed on the Mums in Durham page. It was humbling to see how many people were getting involved; organisations had offered to help, either free of charge or for a much-reduced rate, and people gave of their time freely and offered to help set up and run stalls. Through Mums in Durham, other Facebook pages heard of Dawn's story and donated.

When I went along this afternoon, the church hall was packed. The building was buzzing with helpers, organisers and with all those who had come along to support Dawn and her family, many of whom had not met her, but who felt compassion for her and wanted to help in some way.

I came away having bought four cakes and donated a small sum of money to a collection. I looked at the cakes and thought of my contribution and didn't feel that I had done very much. I later discovered that the whole event had raised over £1500 which was a fantastic sum. My part might not have been very big in that, but it was a part, and this had made a difference.

Dawn has apparently been overwhelmed by the response. One of the admin members of the Facebook group said that Dawn had said to her that she felt surrounded by love and support and that this had really helped her to cope with what is happening in her life.

We can't do everything, but we can do something, and our part does matter and does make a difference.