It's no secret that recently the U.K has been hit by the biggest storms in many years. It was devastating and hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, with not much more than the clothes they stood in. Lots of people missed out on a big family Christmas and New Year because they stayed in hotels and didn't have the money for the luxury dinner or presents. It was destroying for everyone involved.... But out of the horror came amazing community spirit.
Thousands of people in my local town rallied round to help those affected, after my Dad set up the 'Get Boston Back on its Feet' group on Facebook. The main initiative was that if we were in this position, we'd want someone to help and think of us, other than the council.The next day, he, my Mum and Mark Douglass organised a donation stand for Christmas toys for the children who lost theirs in the flooding. They, along with many of the volunteers, managed to gather over 300 presents for all ages, from newborn babies to 16 year old teenagers. This was due to the amazing generosity of the local 'Bostonians' and without them, there would've been a lot of distraught children waking up on Christmas Day!!
As time went on, the Facebook group grew in size and the volunteers gave amazing input, going to the Fenside Community Centre to help sort out donations, visiting the affected people and even going so far as to delivering the donated items to the needy in their own vehicles for free! It was a great team effort and without the volunteers, many people still wouldn't be back in their homes. To this day, the fund has raised
£20,
000 which has been spent on white goods and carpet from local businesses for the people getting back to their homes.
As much as the volunteers have been so great throughout the process, without my Dad, the group would never have even been set up! I saw first hand how he worked through the Christmas holidays,
took calls at 9.00 at night and put his personal life on hold to help others. When I saw that Daybreak were holding a competition for 2014 'Flood Heroes' I couldn't help thinking that what Dad did was
worthy and deserving of recognition for his effort. I emailed them on behalf of my Mum after I spoke to her about it (the age limit was 16) and then I forgot all about it!
After around 3 weeks later, it was the evening after a usual boring Monday at school, I came home and checked my emails, only to find one from the Daybreak production team!! They said how they wanted to get in contact with Dad and I to find out more about what we are both like. So the next day, before school we spent half an hour chatting and explaining exactly what it was Dad had done to help. They said it would be a few days before we knew if the application had been successful, as there were hundreds of applications and nominations to judge! Eventually we got a call back saying they narrowed it down to five winners and that in a weeks time, there'd be a film crew coming to interview us to go onto Daybreak afterwards! Rav came up from London on the the Tuesday next
week and it was so much fun being interviewed and also being showed how to operate an official
filming camera! (It's my hope to go into something media related;journalism or television.)
I didn't really realise how emotional the floods really were; we had been lucky and avoided the disaster. But Rav filmed in one of the flood victims home, and as she recalled what happened, it really bought it home how hard the past few months had been for the affected people. This lady explained how she really didn't want to come back in to her home, but the volunteers had helped her feel comfortable enough to eventually be able to return.
When the VT was shown on Daybreak, there was only a short clip of the 2 hours of filming we'd produced in the past couple of days, which was disappointing as it didn't really show the effort from the volunteers that we'd spoken about. (Plus my bit was cut out... Gutted!!)
However, the highlight was definitely going to the actual ITV studios in London, which is where I
was on Saturday morning! On Friday night, Dad and I travelled the 3 and 1/2 hours on the train to Kings Cross then got on the tube to Waterloo Station.
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| Strangely I love getting on the tube! |
On the tube, there was something that really effected and stayed with me, a young Scottish man had a small pot and entered our carriage saying "I'm sorry to disturb you ladies and gentlemen but is there
any chance you could help me raise a hostel fund for my hostel stay tonight?" I felt so guilty, here I was on an 'all expenses paid for' trip and there was him not even getting enought money for a night in a youth hostel. However, thinking it through later, the money given to him could be used for his
next drug hit and as bad as it sounds, it could easily be true, as hostels for the homeless are usually free; it really does make you grateful though!
When we arrived, it was around 8.30pm so we quickly checked into our hotel, The Ibis Blackfriars, and it was lush! You could see the OXO tower lit up from the window, and the free wifi was a great bonus!:-) we went for dinner, to use our £50 worth of vouchers, paid for by the Daybreak producers! I ordered the biggest four cheese pizza, with an apple tizer and chocolate cheesecake, and I'm sure I put on another 5 stone after it all!
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| This was gorgeous, but I was so full afterwards!! |
I can't recommend the hotel and restaurant enough, it was such a relaxing atmosphere and the design was so sleek and modern;I loved it!
We went for a little walk afterwards, just up the road! It was so quiet(well it was 10.30 at night!) and we saw St.Pauls Cathedral, stood on the bridge above the Thames and even saw an upside down house, no lie! It was a world away from my usual Thursday night in B-Town! It was great to spend quality time with Dad, with him not working or taking calls!
We got back to the hotel at around 11 and set not one, not two, not three either...but four alarms to wake us up at 5.15, yes you did read that right! A car picked us up at 6.15 on Friday morning, taking us straight to the studios, where we were greeted by Michelle, who took us to the canteen in the centre of the studios. We waited there until the other competition winners arrived, and then we're briefed on what the morning would look like! First of all we had an amazing tour around, seeing the
set for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and we spotted Aled Jones in make up! (But shhh I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that!) We also saw the whole control panel, and sound decks, as well as meeting the producers on the way round! That was definitely an experience I'll never forget and made me realise just how much I wanted to go into media when I'm older! We went back to the canteen for a while, to chat to each other, and we even spoke to Richard Arnold which was really cool!
The definite highlight for me was seeing Joey Essex and Paloma Faith walk past us, I still
haven't got over that!!!!!! It was so crazy that they were there and the producers were acting like it was completely normal while I was silently screaming! PALOMA FAITH AND JOEY ESSEX IN THE SAME STUDIO AS ME, IT JUST DOESNT HAPPEN!!! If we'd have stayed another half hour, we could've got a photo with him- Storm and I were so hoping it'd happen!
We rehearsed what would happen on the actual show, so it went well; myself, Gayner and some other producers had to clap the winners in and cheer as loud as we could! So when the live show actually happened, Storm, Seamus, Clare, Zafar and my Dad all sat on THE ACTUAL DAYBREAK SOFA WITH THE ACTUAL PRESENTERS! I watched from the control panel, and none of them looked nervous at all, which is crazy, I would've been so scared! It was announced in a special message from Richard Branson that each winner would receive £5,000 for their flood fund! Not only that though, they are all attending a reception at none other than 10 Downing Street with David Cameron!
After they'd finished filming, it was around 8.30 so we all headed upstairs to have breakfast on the 14th floor, which had beautiful, postcard worthy views! It was so lovely, and we all sat and had nice conversations too. Although the main topic was Storm and I wanting to get a photo with Joey before we left! Breakfast was great, cereal and pain au chocolat, along with a chocolate cookie,mmmm!
Eventually though,we had to leave and come back down to reality, after 2 days of being treated really like royals! Another car picked us up from the studios and took us to Kings Cross for our journey back to Boston:-( I loved every single second, and I'd love to do it all again, because it really was one of the best experiences I've ever had! I was still in shock about the whole day, and on the train I was still on a hype from it all!
I am so grateful to the people at ITV for being so lovely and welcoming to us, and making us feel so comfortable in the studios... And for putting us up in an amazing hotel!
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| From left to right, Jamal, Zafar, Claire, Mark, Me, Storm, Gaynor, Seamus and Mark. |
