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Humbled and Honoured
What an achievement for the Acorn!
On Tuesday April 4th I
received what I thought was a spam email from No 10 Downing street;
after all, who would know who I was at No 10. At the time I was with
a customer and friend: Peter at Earl Transport.
I showed him the email and
said I wasn't going to open in case it contained a virus. I was more
concerned about getting it off my phone.
Peter said that I should check it out in
case it was real. So I sent it to Sara who eventually got back to me
and said it was indeed genuine and that she had nominated me to
attend a Local Media Champions Reception in recognition for the work
I do in the community.
This I attended on Wednesday April 19th after which, I was treated to a personal guided tour of Parliament
and dinner at the Strangers’ Restaurant inside the House of Commons.
My daughter Alana joined me for this exciting
adventure.
Alex Kelly, Sara's P.A, escorted us around
Westminster Hall and the House of Commons and we even had the
privilege of going into the gallery to listen to a debate on the
day.
Going through the doors of 10 Downing Street
was so exciting.
I
had 2 requests from friends; one was to take a picture of Larry the
cat and the other was to find a painting of
'Silcocks Fairground at Daisy Nook.'
Local family member Lawrence Silcock told me that L S Lowry
had painted his Big Uncle Ted's Fairground back in the 1950s and was
hanging in Downing Street somewhere. On my journey up the staircase
towards the Reception Room I saw this wonderful painting, signed by
L S Lowry 1948, which had pride of place.
After a wonderful reception hosted by the
Rt. Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP Secretary of State for Culture, Media and
Sport, she
congratulated around 30 of us from around the UK for being there and
told us that our local media,
reporting local stories was as important as the National
Press. It was lovely to meet other champions from radio, newspaper
journalists and photographers.
After leaving the reception room and heading
to the inside door I asked the security guard where Larry was. He
told me that he was asleep on a cushion in the window bottom but I
wasn't allowed to take photographs inside. I did actually try my
best to entice him outside but to no avail. I did however, stroke
him 3 times: one from me, one from Hillary Austin RBL and one from
Andy Richards from Happy Cats.
Back
at the House of Commons we had drinks in the Strangers’ Bar where
the MPS drink, then headed to the Strangers’ Restaurant where they
dine, for a wonderful meal. It was an absolute pleasure to get an
insight into Sara's work and see what she does for the community of
Hyndburn and Haslingden, and to top it off we were able to go inside
the House of Commons chamber and stand
where our Prime Minister stands.
Thank You to Sara for a truly wonderful
experience.
It was also lovely to be in London to
witness all the preparations taking place for King Charles III’s
Coronation.
Tracy Simmonds
Editor
Acorn Community News
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