DARREN Potter, who is slowly dying of lung cancer, has lost four of his close family to the Covid-19 coronavirus in the last year. Mr Potter, 46, is mourning his father, John, 75, his Aunty June, 81, and his uncles David Sharp, 62, and Johnny Sharp, who was in his 70s. “Last year started off quite badly. It has just been one thing after another,” said Mr Potter, of Jacob Way, Warminster. “The first to go was June, who died at the end of March, followed by dad at the beginning of April. “My uncle David died in January, to be followed eight days later by Uncle Johnny.
Wessex Community Action has launched its Acts of Appreciation campaign. Chief executive Amber Skyring said the idea came after she was contacted by the father of student nurse Laura Morrow. The 22-year-old, a third-year student nurse at Bournemouth University on her eighth placement at Salisbury District Hospital, said: “Everyone’s morale has been so low lately. Usually we get left lots of sweets and things by visitors and that is a bit of a pick-me-up but because visitors aren’t allowed we don’t get any of that and those little things can mean quite a lot. “And it isn’t just NHS staff. There are people who don’t even get thought about, like the binmen who have been working all this time, postmen and shop workers. They have been so under-appreciated.”