We CAN make a difference

It’s easy to feel like we, as individuals, can’t make much of a difference in this vast world. But our lead story this week proves just goes to show how important the intervention of a single person can be.

Personal trainer Ricky Potter didn’t think twice about rushing to the aid of Trevor Foster when he collapsed outside a motorcycle shop in Maidstone last month and started performing potentially lifesaving CPR.

Now, the 60-year-old is recovering after major heart surgery and is looking forward to the happy event of walking his daughter down the aisle – something that may not have been possible had it not been for this heroic passer-by.

In a terribly sad contrast, this week we also cover the opening of an inquest into the death of young mum Natalie Gray, who appears to have taken her own life after walking out of a psychiatric ward. The 24-year-old had spent two hours at a train station just one mile away from the mental health unit before her death.

Alas, there was no-one around to intervene in her case. It is difficult not to allow ourselves to wonder what the effect would have been had a commuter seen her distress and raised the alarm, had a police officer gone to the station as part of the search, had a medical professional seen and acted on the signs.

Of course these are all “what ifs”, but ones we all tend to ask after such a tragedy.

But it just goes to show how, actually, we all can make a profound difference to the lives of those around us. Something that cannot be seen more starkly than in the pages of this newspaper.