Have you been following Vernon Kay’s ultra ultra marathon?

Our family has been transfixed this week.

It’s Friday, 17 November, 9.39am as I sit in the kitchen, radio on, listening with the nation as we await Vernon’s approach to the finish line. He’s just passed through the grounds of his old primary school and there’s a silence on the radio as the tension builds and we wait to hear the new total for the money he’s raised….

£3,750,475!

How awesome is that!!?

I’m meant to be working right now but I can’t pull myself away from the radio. Even sitting here alone, I feel like I’m a part of something.

It reminds me of lockdown when the nation pulled together in so many different ways. There are messages coming through from people who’ve donated their last few pounds to support Vernon and Children in Need. There are messages from children who have donated their pocket money and I feel proud of my children for donating their pocket money too.

This morning and throughout the week, as Children in Need takes the spotlight, I’ve listened to stories of parents who’ve lost children, children who are carers for their parents, children with disabilities that completely change how they’re able to interact with the world, and entire families living in abject poverty.

As I listen, I think about each of them and the many thousands of people like them, as well as all the people in war-torn countries, losing loved ones, lives and homes, people being oppressed and people suffering alone, unseen and unnoticed.

And then I look up from my computer and take a moment to really see the life I live.

To feel anything but gratitude seems ludicrous.

If you’d like to donate to children in need, here’s the link: https://donate.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk