LUKE MARSDEN: Hoping for a better year ahead

Let’s be honest, 2021 hasn’t quite been the year we wanted it to be, as we look towards entering our third year with Covid as the great-uncle nobody likes in the family.

However, I want to remain hopeful that 2022 will be better than this year.

It must be because 2021 was in many ways better than 2020.

I may have had two battles with Covid this year but as I reflect on my own personal year, it wasn’t the only battle I faced.

Back in May I fought an election, we battled the heat in the summer and the storms in the winter.

So 2021 for many of us was a year of survival, but next year we can make it the year we all thrive.

Our NHS and frontline heroes continue to battle every day for us, whereas politicians seemingly just battle each other.

Next year we need to raise the bar.

Social media remains the Wild West of the internet filled with more trolls than treasure.

Mental health battles for many will rage on and won’t get any easier over the next few days of festivities.

Our town has seen its businesses battle closures and re-opening, a new mining statue to remember the past and an ominous future for our Galleries remains.

As we enter the new year and we all celebrate the end of another 12 months of pandemic, let’s keep our spirits (literally in our drinks) high and remain ever hopeful that the new year brings some joy, a fresh set of challenges and opportunities for us, our town and our families and we once and for all, properly learn to live with a virus that will have to learn to live with us.

I’ll drink to that!

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