I spent two days looking after my grandchildren, who are polite and respectful, although occasionally wilful, but they know their boundaries, even though they try to push them with Grandma, but Grandma knows not to give in.

I then came into the office to hear about the riots and the greed, and watching a boy being interviewed on the television saying “We are going out to get some money because the police can’t stop us.”

I then started work on our Oldie Composers competition and Young songwriters competition in aid of Barnardo’s. Now some people would say, why bother, why work and live the life we do? Why are most of our waking hours and some of my sleeping ones taken up by how we can improve what we are doing. How we can reach more people with what we do.

Is it greed, no it certainly is not that, we do not earn huge amounts of money, and we have no idea whether we will earn enough to sustain us, and there is often chat about whether I should go and get a job to subsidise the song writing competitions. But we keep holding on, hoping that we will find a sponsor, or something will come along. BUT I am prepared to get out there and do whatever is necessary to earn money to keep this going.
I am also prepared, that if it all fails, we have to admit defeat and go back to full time working and doing part time voluntary work.

So why do we do it? We do it because we believe in Barnardo’s, we believe in their commitment to help disadvantaged children. We believe in their commitment to help the government teach our children how to deal with what life throws at us, and rise above it and become better people. We believe in the work they do to help teenagers who have had no real guidance from their families. The more we can do to raise money to help Barnardo’s, the more good work they can do, and the more young people they can help.

Of course, a lot of people have said to me that we should not have to have charities, the government should be able to deal with all of this. Well I disagree, there is not enough money or resources to do all the work that needs to be done. BUT there is another reason why I believe charity is worthwhile.
When you do voluntary work or fundraising (as we now do) and you see the good your work does it makes you feel that your life is worthwhile. It gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning and look forward to each day.

When we started young songwriters, we went into a school to talk about how the competition will work and what it was all about and one young lady asked Norman if he was going to make her famous, he replied that we would not be doing that. That we were there to encourage young people to have fun, using music and lyrics to express feelings, but in a fun and energetic way. She then asked again, “But if my song wins, will you sign me up and make me famous”. Again, we explained that this is not about fame, this is about caring, this is about doing something that you are good at, using your talent to help somebody who is suffering or has lost their way.

I know our country is in turmoil at the moment, but I believe that each small step forward is worth all the work. Let’s not give up on these young people, let’s help those that want our help.