Viva Brighton Issue #85 March 2020

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
#85 MAR 2020
EDITORIAL
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I wasn’t sure what to expect when we started
exploring ‘care’ – our theme for this month’s issue.
The word is all too often couched in terms of a
broken, costly and overburdened system. Would we
find lamentable stories of the forgotten, beleaguered
and downtrodden?
Of course not. Quite the opposite in fact. We
found people who consider their caring role to be
a privilege and who know that in caring for others
we care for ourselves. Like the extraordinary team
at the Martlets hospice, whose work with the dying
reminds them of what’s truly important about life.
We discover the stories of Helen Boyle – Brighton’s
first female GP and a pioneering mental health
doctor, and the philanthropic Mrs Marriott – who
arranged for almshouses to be built for the poor.
And then there are those who care for the carers:
the Young Carers Project who support kids whose
lives are affected by the health condition of a loved
one, and the psychologist who developed an inhouse
counselling service for NHS workers. We
meet people listening out for the lost and the lonely
and the unsung: a series of books putting underrepresented
voices in the Spotlight, a social worker
who’s helping young and unaccompanied female
migrants to navigate their futures, and the people
at Grassroots Suicide Prevention charity who are
throwing a lifeline to those at their lowest ebb (and
teaching others to do the same).
It’s true that caring roles can be woefully underpaid
(if they are paid at all), but the stories in these pages
remind me that care, compassion and kindness are
still free and, mercifully, in abundant local supply.