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Major Packer gives us hope
SOMETIMES – often when you least expect it – someone comes along who impresses and inspires.
It's a bit like watching the compulsive Britain's Got Talent reality show. Just when you think there's nothing but a field of chaff, a solitary ear of wheat emerges, tall and proud.
Let's face it though, Britain is a gloomy place at the moment – financial meltdown, swine flu and a parliament that oozes greed and sleaze.
No wonder then that some of us are so fed up that we're filling out the emigration forms for New Zealand and Canada.
But all hope is not lost – not while we have Major Phil Packer.
Just over a year ago Major Packer was serving in Iraq with the Royal Military Police when a rocket attack robbed him of the use of both legs.
The prognosis was not good. It was unlikely he would ever walk again, medics said.
As is often the case, the patient was determined to prove the doctors wrong and on Saturday, Major Packer, supported by crutches, hobbled across the finishing line of the London Marathon.
I was driving when I heard the news on the radio and like many listeners, I suspect, a lump came to my throat. In fact, my eyes became so misty that I couldn't see the road for a moment or two.
It took Major Packer 13 days to complete the journey; never has the London Marathon been so appropriately named.
It involved 52,400 steps – 52,400 more than doctors predicted he would ever walk.
After he touched the finishing tape, he told the waiting press that "somebody walked with me every step, be it a dinner lady, taxi driver or police officer."
All credit to those fellow walkers who supported him. I wish I lived near enough to have been his companion for a mile or two.
He also said: "It's not about me", referring to the military charity Help For Heroes that does so much for the victims of war and for which Major Packer has raised in the region of 1 million.
But it is about him. It is about Major Packer and people like him.
He is someone who we are proud to call British because he represents that determination of spirit that once made this country great.
Perhaps it is a spirit that isn't lost at all, it has merely been submerged by the current prevailing conditions of despondency.
What Major Packer has shown us is that there is still hope for Britain; simply because there are people like him who can still find the courage to face the challenges of another day.
And let's face it, 36-year-old Major Packer's challenges are tougher than most.
He has shown dogged determination, true grit. He would probably be uncomfortable with being called a hero. But that's what he is.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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