MY name is Nick Hopkinson and I am High Sheriff of Cheshire. Most people know me as ‘Hoppy’.

Because of Covid I seem to have written it more times than I have said it, but that doesn’t diminish the responsibility that I feel around the role and how I can impact on the community in Cheshire.

We have another 4/5 weeks of lockdown ahead of us and I think it is really important for us all to carefully consider how we are going to deal with it.

I would really love to reach out to all the influencers, the entrepreneurs, leaders in the business and civic world, the people who are in those businesses that may flourish during lockdown, the wealthy, the solvent, those in authority – in fact anybody who feels capable of making a difference.

We all have a massive opportunity, an opportunity so huge that it could impact on the lives of others, it might even save the lives of some.

We can use all our skills and resources to complain, articulate and explain where we think the Government and their advisors have got things wrong or we can use them to find ways of helping people who are vulnerable, hungry, homeless, cold or suffering.

It’s a big ask I know. You will all have your own mountains to climb and some will be huge, but there are always some folks who are in worse situations.

I have a friend who highlighted on LinkedIn a low cost and fast way of getting businesses trading online. I messaged him.

That is the difference between words and actions. My friend will now actually help these businesses rather than just talk about helping.

Similarly last weekend when my youngest son suggested making contact with the footballer Marcus Rashford, rather than do that we worked with Warrington Youth Club, set up a hamper production line and used all our contacts on social media to raise enough cash for nearly 1,500 family hampers in just a couple of days – hampers which are already being distributed.

So my challenge is to help, teach, inspire and encourage all those who are able to do something positive to help those in the county who for one reason or another are not in a position to help themselves.

As I said at the beginning, we have a huge opportunity to impact on the lives of others in less fortunate circumstances than us. So it comes down as ever to choices – do you choose to take this opportunity to make a difference or are you going to be shouting the odds, with alternative advice and statistics, listened to mostly by others who agree with you already and making no difference at all?

I am purely making a humanitarian plea, there are real people out there who need help and all I want to do is mobilise great people to recognise that and to act.

Actions, not words – together we can make the difference.

NICK HOPKINSON

High Sheriff of Cheshire