AN HISTORIAN from Warwickshire has donated £2,000 to Warwick Hospital, raised from his book of photographic sketches.
Allan Jennings, who is a member of Leamington History Society, presented a cheque to Intensive Care Unit staff who have spent the past year battling on the front line of the covid crisis.
He was inspired to publish a book to raise money for the ICU following the events of the life-changing events of the past year.
Allan said: “First, we had the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic which has taken so many lives worldwide. Who would have thought back in 2019 that we would experience such an event – isn’t that something that happened 100 years earlier with the Spanish Flu?
“Secondly, the National Health Service was 72 years old in 2020 and the staff had their most difficult year in all of that time. They put their lives on the line to help the rest of the population and some of them paid the ultimate price. Thousands of former employees heard the call and resumed work at their local hospitals. Everyone worked long hours, in some cases double shifts, day after day. Many were called upon to help in intensive care units where a significant number of patients were being ventilated – and then when they finished work for the day, or night, they struggled to buy groceries from the supermarket because the shelves had been stripped bare.”
The book also includes colour sketches of Warwick, Kenilworth and Stratford, since pandemic restrictions have meant more people have enjoyed their local surroundings.
He added: “We are very fortunate to live in a lovely town and a picturesque part of the country and so I thought that I would try to reflect some of our buildings and views, whether historic, architecturally interesting, new or old, as a way of raising money for the NHS. The vast majority of images relate to Leamington, but I added a few from places such as Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon – after all many of us have spent time enjoying both rather than holidaying abroad.
“I could have written another local history book, or even put together a book of ‘normal’ photographs – but I wanted to do something different and so I ended up putting together a book of colour photographic sketches which provide very different images to what you normally see.”
