Today was Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday – a magnificent milestone for an incredible man that has helped to raise £30million (and counting) during the Coronavirus crisis for NHS charities, while lifting the nation’s spirits at the same time. We salute him.
We would also like to highlight another incredible local hero, who ran the Get Captain Tom a Spitfire flyover for his 100th Facebook group that helped get this national hero the Spitfire flyby he deserved, which was done this morning from Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (Official).
But that is not the only thing that Nicola Ann Trott has done during this unprecedented time.
Nicola Ann Trott
Nicola works her normal job, 10-15 hour shifts, six days a week then in her spare time runs the Gift your extras. Join Our Food Bank To Those In Need.
Once a week, she and others take donations of food, cleaning and hygiene products and medicines and delivers them to those in need. The group also supply care homes with hygiene products.
And for the first three weeks of lockdown Nicola was taking food to Luton and Dunstable University Hospital A&E, to give out to nhs.uk staff at night.
Now she takes PPE equipment and is currently holding auctions to raise money purely for PPE.
The group arranged a third birthday party for a little girl whose father had died, ensuring she had a birthday party with all the trimmings and lots of toys, as well as a week’s worth of shopping and a visit from Dunstable Fire Service.
Nicola said: “The donations and care packages take up a lot of time, before and after work in the week. And then on my day off I start first thing, collecting people’s food shopping, then bagging up and delivering. I usually get home just after 10pm
“The members on both groups are amazing and they are why the groups work. It’s their spirit and support and gifting that allows this to happen.
“At Easter we also delivered everyone a chicken, parsnips, gravy, stuffing, carrots, potatoes and tinned fruit, so everyone could have an Easter Sunday roast dinner on top of the normal weekly shop.
“We took them an Easter egg and hot cross buns thrown in as a treat. We also got children involved and they made Easter cards with pictures, saying: ‘You’re not alone, we love you.’ They are also making cards for the ambulance drivers.”
We’re sure you’ll agree that Nicola is an inspiration, as are all the people that work with her to help our community.