Bake a cake and change the world

I wonder how many people sit down each evening in the kitchen, open a bottle of wine and share a Victor Meldrew moment, “ I can’t believe it… what has gone wrong, how can that happen, it is so bloody depressing, what can we do?” There are so many problems, so many issues and there is so little we can do that we might as well open a bottle of Merlot and watch the latest ‘cooking, location, fat but sexy with your clothes off’ show’…hopeless, so what is the point?

Or perhaps, just perhaps, you really can do something. How about taking that feeling of helplessness and turning it into something that really might make a difference to the world in which we live; really do something …and sod what’s on telly tonight.

I went to a shopping mall on Saturday, not what I would normally do, and saw some people make a real difference. A group of inspirational ladies had decided to raise money for Help for Heroes by baking cakes. You may mock; it may well be a cliché, jam and Jerusalem, but they raised £ 5500 in six hours. They stood behind trestle tables in the Brooks centre and they sold cakes; that’s all. They raised £5500 before most of us had breakfast. The youngest cake maker was 11 years old and the organiser was 83 years young and had been in SOE during the war. The point is that they are normal people, people who want to do something, people who have done something, people who have made a difference; extraordinary people.

So tonight, as you return from a bitch of a day at the office and open a bottle of something to ease the pain, think of this. There are boys and girls out there fighting. People the same age as my children doing grown up things like putting up a drip and pulling on a tourniquet; saving lives. While we eat our supper, they are fighting, running across open ground under fire to get to their wounded mates. When we flop back on the sofa and kick off our shoes exhausted, they are going out on patrol in body armour. When we argue with the waiter, they are eating Menu C for the sixth day in succession. They are doing something; so can we.

I am not suggesting you join up, although the recent coverage of Prince Harry on the .50 cal might well have got many an old boy wishing to be out there. No, that’s not it, I don’t think the army really needs us on the front line; that’s not for us.

So what can we do? We can say that the country has gone to the dogs, things aren’t what they were, bloody appalling and wouldn’t have happened under Thatcher, hurrumph… and pass the port. That’s fine, vote at the next election and meanwhile fester redfaced and apoplectic with helpless rage. Or, how about actually doing something? How about doing something like the ladies of Winchester did on Saturday?

Baking cakes may not be your thing, despite being amazingly successful and profitable; you may prefer a quick assault on Everest or a jog across the Kalahari, a marathon, a tandem parachute jump or a sponsored leg wax; it really doesn’t matter as long as you something, as long as you do your bit.

Do something and then what? Firstly we should do something; it makes us feel less helpless. We can’t stop these young men and women being wounded but we can do something. It makes us feel less helpless and it makes them feel appreciated, less forgotten; to know that people are trying to do something on their behalf; to know that we are thinking about them.

Secondly, we are doing something practical; a pool and gym complex at Headley Court will make a very real difference to the wounded; they really need it. If we don’t do it they will not get it.
Thirdly and probably most importantly, we need to change things and we can change things; we are not helpless or powerless. We can do our bit, bake our cakes, ride our bikes, run our races and raise a great deal of money to put to practical use. The key to this though is that by doing our bit, we really change things. The Press writes about us, people in power realise that we care, acknowledge that this matters and things change, for the better. One cake bake is a small event in world affairs but when multiplied it becomes a force and begins to make history.
So, as the cork plops out of the bottle or as you sit down to mutter at the news, don’t think you are helpless or you are too small to make a difference. Do something and join this wonderful wave of ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things and making something happen. Get out there and do something, our wounded are worth it.

Bryn Parry
Appeal Chairman