Although it’s going to be a while before life gets back to normal, the local community’s ongoing response to COVID-19 is something which has encouraged all of us.                                                              

This has been a terrible time for those families affected directly by the pandemic. It has also caused great distress for those who have been cut off from friends and loved ones.

It’s been an incredibly testing time for key workers, for our healthcare providers and everyone else who has kept going to work to ensure that day-to-day life could keep going for the rest of us.

As well as thanking key workers, we want to say a big thank you to those local businesses and their staff who jumped at the opportunity to help, taking exceptional steps to manufacture and provide vital supplies to keep us safe.

Over the past few months, staff from Dalradian have volunteered 1,500 hours and

travelled 10,000 miles making deliveries to support the Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) and a wide range of other local groups. We’re particularly grateful to:

• Carrickmore-based Ion Distillery for making hand sanitizer
• Bloc Blinds from Magherafelt and Hunter Apparel in Derry-Londonderry for making PPE
• the Derry-Londonderry Junior Chamber International for helping co-ordinate the local business response
• everyone in WHSCT Donations Hub who pointed us in the direction of those in need while standing in the front line.

Nobody can predict the future, but it’s going to take a long time to work through the problems caused by this pandemic.

We’ve made a lot of progress so far, but our sense of community and working together will be just as important in the months ahead.