Your Surrey COVID Heroes E-book of Thanks

Online E-book of Thanks

Your Surrey COVID Heroes E-book of Thanks is a place to celebrate Surrey's COVID heroes as a countywide record to recognise all those residents who put themselves at risk, protected others, kept services running and boosted morale during COVID-19.

After a temporary glitch due to circumstances outside of our control, any entries made before 20 June cannot be retrieved by the Surrey County Council team. If you submitted an entry during this time can you please re-submit and your entry will be published in our new E-book of thanks. Apologies to any inconvenience caused.

To nominate your Surrey COVID hero or heroes simply:

  1. Register your name and email address using our form
  2. Then tell us a little about the person, persons or organisation that you want to celebrate and send thanks to.
  3. Upload a photo of your COVID hero or send us a link to a video you want to share

We will review all messages before they are published. Messages can be submitted either individually or as a representative of an organisation. Terms and conditions apply. This webpage will be updated on a weekly basis.

Your Surrey COVID Heroes

Welcome to Surrey's 'Book of Thanks – Celebrating Surrey's Covid Heroes'.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's how resilient we are and how in a crisis, communities come together to help the most vulnerable.

Whilst Surrey continues to recover from the pandemic, this is also the time to recognise and thank our residents on the ground, at the very heart of the County, and pay tribute to all their hard work and sacrifices made, whilst working together in the battle against COVID-19.

We have all been affected in some way. Too many have gone through the heart wrenching pain of losing loved ones and some continue to deal with the long-term effects of COVID-19. My heartfelt sympathies go out to all those whose lives have been irreparably changed.

This book, however, is a space to thank each and every one of you. Not just those on the front line, but those who delivered groceries to their neighbour, who sat at home sewing masks, who got their communities up and dancing in the streets and to the charities and businesses who enabled and supported that fantastic effort too. This book is for anyone and everyone who selflessly helped another.

Let this book be an opportunity for us to celebrate the unsung heroes. A positive place to shine a light on the residents in our communities who deserve to be recognised. A County record to document all the people who put themselves at risk, protected others, kept services running and boosted morale.

I am forever grateful. Thank you!

Helyn Clack

Chair of Surrey County Council 2021 to 2023

Farnham Library Staff

Farnham Library staff, for their 'Ready Reads' service, when they were closed to browsing and normal service. We told them what sorts of books we enjoyed on- line and they chose the books for us to collect. They were always spot on with their choices and introduced me to many new authors. Reading is always important to me but more so during the long days of limited contact.

Mrs Susan Everitt

Royal Surrey County Hospital Staff

I wish to nominate all the heroes of the Royal Surrey County Hospital doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians and all other ancillary staff for their dedication to duty and helping their patients. In particular I wish to thank the amazing medical staff of the Intensive Care Unit where I spent 9 weeks to recover from COVID-19. I salute and honour all of these heroes. Thank you.

Samuel Daniel

Haslemere Help

This organisation recruited volunteers and was ready for lockdown almost a fortnight before the government acted. The collaboration between local organisations, town councillors, local businesses, people in need and the volunteers was amazing. The volunteers went above and beyond what was called for and the community thank them wholeheartedly.

Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper

The Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper (EETN) is a charity which provides a free service for up to 100 Visually Impaired people living in the local area. Pre-Covid, recordings of local news and magazine articles were compiled weekly by a team of volunteers at our studio at Swail House in Epsom. When Covid hit, lockdown regulations forced production of the EETN to cease, sadly increasing the isolation which many Visually Impaired people already experienced. However, three of our volunteers realised that they might be able to work within the Covid restrictions and produce the EETN once more. They are Julie Harvey, Heather Griffin and Richard Wheeler who were able to resume production from home for our delighted listeners. Gradually our ranks swelled to include a home recording team of 18 volunteers, including another recordist, Simon Gale. They are all heroes, the three with the initial driving force, and the editors and readers who provided a vital home service during the Covid years.

Mrs Tricia Ladd

Horsell Prepareda picture of a woman smiling for the e-book of thanks

Horsell Prepared (HP) is a community voluntary organisation which responds to village incidents. By the outbreak of COVID, HP was so well prepared that it was operational 1 week prior to lockdown. HP received over 1,000 calls. None of this would not have been achieved without the vision of Helen Cammack who was the driving force behind this initiative. Further to this, Helen, who is an excellent IT and business consultant, has designed an impressive and fully integrated IT software suit to manage resources. HPs is now part of Woking Borough Council's resilience plan. Helen assisted other groups to get started such as St Johns, many of which have ceased operation. HP is unique in that it had a capability prior to COVID thanks to Helen's vision and community commitment and has grown an organisation that is still operational now but with a broader remit beyond CV19 to support Horsell residents Horsell is very fortunate to have a community committed and talented person as Helen Cammack as a resident.

Mr Alan Taylor

With You

I want to thank all my colleagues at With You's Surrey IAPT service who worked tirelessly throughout the Covid pandemic to ensure that we could keep delivering effective 1:1 and group therapy for people struggling with their mental health at a uniquely strange and difficult time. Their amazing flexibility and commitment at the very start of the pandemic allowed us to pivot from mostly in-person to all remote working in under a week and to make the change in a way that caused clients as little difficulty as possible. All of our staff went above and beyond to make sure that no clients missed appointments, or had to wait unnecessarily for appointments, as a result of the upheavals of lockdown. We even scheduled extra sessions in the week before lockdown to show our clients how to use video conferencing ahead of our service's anticipated move online. We have also managed to reduce our waiting times so that clients are able to access treatment immediately.

Ms Alison Bannister

Chilworth Care Community

After celebrating 40 years of providing lifts to the local community in 2019, Chilworth Care Committee changed to become a 'Good Neighbour' scheme - a lifeline for some as their sole means of getting food, medication and reassurance, as well as helping them stay in touch. So many people came forward to help. Our volunteers monitored telephone calls regularly 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We buddied up our 20 existing volunteers with our 40 existing passengers and provided and regularly updated advice, guidance and useful information for all. Volunteers monitored our emails, updated our page on the village website and put up information posters in key locations around the village. We amended our policies guidance for our new volunteers. We received over 100 calls, helped with 60 food deliveries and 40 prescriptions during the first lockdown alone. A Massive Thank you to all who volunteered to help one another in our village of Chilworth – and still do so! We could not do it without you!

Ms Linda Holden

Jigsaw Plus

Thank you to Jigsaw Plus Dunsfold Business Park for continuing to provide support for young adults with autism under very challenging circumstances. The learners and their families would have been completely lost without you.

Mrs Nicola Parker

The Hope Hub

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at The Hope Hub who worked tirelessly throughout the whole COVID period ensuring that there was always someone available to help keep vulnerable, homeless people safe and informed. They prepared and delivered food parcels directly to people who were self-isolating and unable to leave their homes. They ensured everyone who turned up at The Hope Hub were the fed and watered using The Hope Hub gazebo located in Camberley Park minimizing the risk of infection. The team worked selflessly to ensure people received appropriate advice and delivered its Services Pathway to help everyone get through such a difficult period. The Hope Hub exists for the relief of poverty specifically to those who are homeless, at risk of becoming so, unemployed, in debt, struggling with their mental health and/or has addiction. Its doors are open to all whether from abusive homes, trafficked, homeless, unemployed, in debt or at risk of homelessness.

Mr Paul Amphlett

Age Concern Mole Valley

A huge thank you to all our volunteers for their continued support but specially during the pandemic. Our volunteer befrienders continued to support their clients by calling to offer reassurance and to check on their welfare, others would walk past their home just to give them a little wave and check they were ok. We also recruited 19 telephone befrienders to make check in calls or to just have a chat. Our IT volunteers offered remote support; Sonya helped a gentleman to set up Zoom as he was really missing attending prayer meetings. "I am really happy that I can join prayer meetings and services now. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your help, being able to attend prayer meetings is really important to me." Another volunteer Davina wrote a beautiful story to add to our befriender clients Christmas bags, and Colin sent his client wildlife postcards of photos he took on his walks on the common. We would like to say thank you to each and every one of you.

Mrs Andrea Kelley

Brookwood Post Office

Brookwood post office who were open all the time, expanded to sell fruit veg flour and essentials. Always open, always cheerful, always helpful, helped bring neighbours together. A big thank you.

Mrs Vivienne Raven

Post office

I would like to thank my husband Paul and all his Post Office colleagues who worked all through the pandemic to keep people in touch with each other and supporting local communities and business by delivering their mail and parcels. Well done all xx

Mrs Caroline Sidwell

Central Surrey Voluntary Action

Central Surrey Voluntary Action would like to thank the following people for volunteering with us on our COVID shopping project 2020 to 2022 and for supporting us with our work during that time. We appreciate everything that you did to support our local community at that time. Thank you so much Peter Herman, Marilyn Chubb, Andy James, Aimee Peake, Melanie Dixon, Gergana Vassileva, Iben Hornbek and Trish Roberts.

Ms Sally Dubery

Central Surrey Voluntary Action

CSVA would like to thank the following volunteers who supported our Shopping project throughout the COVID lockdowns. Charlotte Ackary-Hawthorn, David Allerton, Rachael Beaumont, Katie Blackwood, Andrew Brown, Annabel Brown, Daniel Churchard, Jessica Comley, Catherine Cornish, Ed Darwin, Gary Glynn, Shani Glynn, Karen Harris, Natalie Illingworth, Daiva Jarmala, Neelam Jehlwal, Vicki Macleod, Victoria McDonald, Elizabeth Morgan, Emily Mudie, Grace Newland, Melanie Newland, Charlotte Norfolk, Krisztina Norfolk, Rachel O'Byrne, Moira Stafford Neck, Emily Talbot, Carolyn Valentine, Nicolette Henfrey-van Hoffen, Georgia van Hoffen, Paulien van Pul, Monika Wells, Lucy Whelan, Rachel Wilkinson and Janine Willson.

Ms Sally Dubery

Surrey Foster Carers

The Foster carers of Surrey. Maintaining family time and contact with birth families during this difficult time.

Mrs Emma Raven

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