"The capacity to continue living positively for some people never ceases to amaze me however old I get. I see children with fatal illnesses working their little socks off for charitable causes as they move closer to God. I read about patients who have had heart transplants doing marathons for hospices only months after their operations to help put something back. I hear of poor people who don't have two pennies to rub together, giving half of the one penny they do have to someone poorer than themselves or some worthy cause. I hear of magnificent feats of bravery daily carried out by firemen and firewomen as they enter burning buildings to rescue the trapped and put their lives on the line by doing so. I see men and women whose hearts have been broken by another, invest their love and trust once more, in the knowledge that they could experience the same emotional turmoil again, but in the hope they won't. I see soldiers returning from war with horrific injuries and the absence of limbs who go on to make the best out of what they are mercifully left with as they get on with their lives.
Such are the individuals who truly deserve the medals of honour and distinction when such accolades are being dished out annually; not the celebrities who receive a massive monetary reward for plying their trade, the civil servants with their £50,000 per year pensions, the Chief Executives of large business corporations, the high-rolling party-political donators or the banking bosses. Society should honour those people who truly make Britain great, not greedy!" William Forde: July 12th, 2015.