Courage

 I seem to be watching rather a lot of TV documentaries at the moment. One series that I am currently following with tears, gasps of wonder and awe is " katie, My Beautiful Friends" on Channnel 4.
This is the trailer for the series:

Katie Piper is a young woman in her late twenties, who three years ago, worked as a model and was enjoying her young life. This all changed when a man hired someone to throw acid over her. She was burned terribly on her face and body, had damage to her esophagus and was blinded in one eye.

Since the first documentary she made about the initial aftermath of the attack, she has gone on to courageously set up a charity, The Katie Piper Foundation , which has at it's aim to give support to people living with burns and scars.

I've watched all the espisodes, and all have made me sit up and take notice at the courage shown, but the strongest memory I have is of Amit who says, "My Dad used to call me brave boy, but I think it was him that made me brave."

Clink Amit's picture to find out more.

 Amit is 21 and about to start University. He is fearful of what people will say when they see him, he wants to go to uni, as this was his Dad's dream for him. His Dad died a few years ago and was Amit's main carer. Amit puts aside his fears and goes to uni. He takes katie's advice to act "as if" he is confident. Soon he is running a fundraising campaign for victims of acid attacks in Islamic countries where many acid attacks take place apparently. Whilst he is going through all of this, he has to come to terms with the prospect of a life saving operation that could leave him paralysed. He is alone when he receives this news from his doctor, his Dad no longer being around to go to hospital appointments with him.

Once again I am speechless at the courage of people like Katie and Amit. I will always be amazed at the human spirit and the ways that we see people continuing their lives whilst dealing with terrible difficulties. Often such courage goes unnoticed, people quietly getting on with things.

We see this in Japan too, at this time. For the past month Japan hasn't been far from our thoughts, as each day we awake and remember what happened. Today, one month on from the Tsumani and Earthquake 14,500 people are still listed as missing and 13,000 people are known to have died. The survivors are still living in shelters and the streets still piled high with rubble. Following the initial shock and attention from news organisations, there has been little about how people are starting to rebuild their lives and the recovery operations, in the mainstream news.

Today Japan is back in the headlines. One man I just heard speaking to the reporter on the news, said that his town had been hit by Tsunamis before and had been rebuilt many times. He stressed that they needed to work hard now to rebuild the town, and referred to the example he would be setting to his son by doing so.

The Japan Red Cross continues to raise money to help survivors and Quake Book is one way that people are fundraising. This is a book that documents people's experience. When you remember that many people will never be found, their bodies never recovered, this seems a fitting memorial to their memories.