BRENDA PRESCOTT

My next SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER is a very personal choice.

Brenda Prescott is a former colleague of mine. As Head of PE for about 20 years at the Royal Masonic School in Rickmansworth, she was an inspiration to others through the exemplary way she taught.

She also provided voluntary support for disabled swimmers at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Suddenly, Brenda was struck down with meningitis, completely out of the blue. Brenda nearly died. As it is, the associated illnesses that arose from the complications that set in meant that she lost both of her legs.

I remember to this day meeting Brenda for the first time after her illness struck – it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I asked her how she was, amongst other platitudes as I struggled to think what on earth I could possibly say to her. Instead of feeling bitter or angry about the illness that had struck her down, Brenda could not have been any more positive and matter-of-fact.

“There’s no point crying over spilt milk,” he told me, “what’s done is done!”

“How can you possibly have that positive attitude after what’s happened to you Brenda?” I asked.

She went on to say, “At least I’m very lucky. I get to do something you will not.”

“What’s that?” I queried.

“Learn to walk. I get my new legs next month and I am going to have to learn to walk on them.”

Then as now, those words stunned me. An ability to think like this humbles me still and I feel honoured to be able to consider to Brenda as a friend. She has simply refused to let her disability get her down.

I suffer from psoriasis and used to moan about it all the time. However, through being SPIRITUALLY WEIGHTLIFTED by Brenda’s wonderful approach, I have not complained about my relatively mild affliction since.

Almost single-handedly she keeps the historical event of SCHOOL DRILL going at my school. This involves 180 girls performing a series of synchronised movements to music over a 20-minute period without any form of instruction. It is a joy to watch and will be, itself, a SPIRITIUAL WEIGHTLIFTER of the future when I will explain more about it. But her role in this likens her to a storyteller of old, who passes on important tales so that the next generation get to hear them and thereby perpetuate their heritage.

Brenda deservedly won an MBE last year. And the shame is that many people who will have seen her name on the honours list, will have thought ‘who’s that’. Yet I consider that Brenda is far, far more deserving of her award than many of the other people who received honours but who are better known. Through living an exemplary life, Brenda has shown me how to be an inspiration to others. She is a true SPIRITUAL WEIGHTLIFTER.