NHS Uprising In London 03-02-18

In 2017 I started to Learn more about the crisis within our NHS !!!

I am From Grantham, Lincolnshire and suffer from a range of things that affect my day to day life such as Depression, Anxiety, and learning difficulties From Dyslexia & Dyspraxia .

As I continue to fight my corner to access Help from the list of cuts to services In Lincolnshire as well our must needed A & E Department, it was time to start learning and helping get the message out there.

One of the ways i am able to help is by using my media skills to create photography and videos and Blog posts much like this one.

In 2016 I helped cover the events that where going off to do with our A &E as you can see below

From There i Joined Fighting 4 Life Lincolnshire Campaigners In London, Leeds and Grimsby to March with other campaign groups to save Our NHS.

Over these marches it has not only created great chances for Photography and video content but to understand about the NHS, feel proud marching with banners, and chants, being around so many people that its way out of my comfort zone but because there is Thousands of people, in a wave of euphoric strength that fills the streets miles away, its no wonder i feel happy and even joining in with the chants when your fighting for a very important cause !!!

So in 2018 I went back to London the place that over 250,000 people turned up, a place where we had outstanding and powerful speakers telling us why we must keep fighting !!!

I had set my alarm the night before for 5.45 am, and got to Grantham Hospital, for just after 7am, where i met up with the rest of the campaigners, by 7.30 we was heading off to london.

The morning started off very cold and with rain, and was hoping by the time we got into London it would stop.

Within 15 Minutes Our Wonderful NHS Uprising Banner was set up, and lots of people wanting photos, More people was turning up at the first meeting point, and Steve Carne Started with one of many fun short songs about the NHS that was going to appear Throughout the day.

Soon After that the March started, with a different route from the one last year, i wanted to not only capture the efforts from The Lincolnshire Campaigners but try to battle to the front of the march to get some good footage to.

After only a few minutes we were stopped, as there was a bus with people on the top doing chants, getting the whole crowd pumped, and chanting back.

I quickly kept switching modes on my camera so that i could get photography and video clips to later be made into a proper video.

As you can see below i managed to get these 2 epic photos one of which showing our awesome friends From HRI !!!!

As this point the day started to get a lot colder and heavier rain, it was also getting a lot harder to capture footage because all the thousands of protesters were on one narrow-ish road, even the fact that we stopped about 3-4 for a short period it still made it impossible to move.

The chants were now starting to pick up with chants about Tories, whos our NHS, Propaganda and much more.

What surprised me as we was marching was the amount of young people, this was great to see as we are not only fighting for the NHS for ourselves but for the generations to come, who at the moment do not have the services which once were, which like myself makes battling for help harder and harder each day.

We all started to gather in one place, and from a far way back you could hear the chanting from the front.

I left my fellow campaigners to try and get around lots of people to be near the front, it was now getting impossible to hold the camera as i could barely feel my hands.

I hanged around getting a few photos and trying to get footage of the speakers but at this point my anxiety kicked into overdrive.

Last year when we stopped for the speakers it was a much more open place, and i had people i knew next to me.

This time, as i looked behind me at the Thousands of people i could not see anyone from our group.

For me its annoying as even if i am not talking to people i know just them being there, makes me feel less on edge i feel safe and i feel that if i was not feeling good i could tell them.

So in the end gutted that i could not stay to hear more speakers i tried to weave through people and find my group.

I felt sorry for the guys holding the Uprising Banner as they were no where near the front and could not move because of how big the banner was.

I felt overall that the march was not as good as last year, for more then one reason.

Last year, we all met in one place before the march started, we had the best speakers ever put so much passion and chants to get the crowd going, this was around a hour before we all set of to march.

Last year there was so many more people and the weather was also amazing not only that but the day was structured so that you had speakers, then the march followed by regrouping at the end for more speakers.

This year how ever was a lot more time just being stopped to a halt for sometimes up to nearly half a hour in the wet and cold, i felt the chants were not as loud as last year, even though this year there were better chants and songs from our group and others i still felt last year was better.

Then we have the meeting point for the speakers that was totally in the wrong place which meant only a small amount of people could see them, you also had some kind of music, a far way back playing heavy metal which then was drowning out the voices coming from the stage ahead.

I honestly think that if the event was better set out that more people would have joined in and it would have been a much better experience, but it was still worth going to Fight for our NHS

It was now around 2.30 PM and even though I enjoyed the march i was so cold and soaked I just wanted to get back home.

We all grouped up and headed to a pub to get dry, which lead to going to another one in order to meet up with Hands off HRI !!!!

Of course the day would not be complete without Steve Carne getting stopped, to be recorded and to chat about The day, i think steve and Melissa Darcey bring so much spark to the marches with their chants and songs, and often because of that gets other protests joining in (:

With that the day was finished we left London just after 4.30pm and got back in Grantham just after 8pm.

I got home, and started Editing the photography i had taken, and then the next day was busy creating a video of the day which you can see below.

I had been checking every few hours the fighting 4 Lincolnshire page, seeing peoples outrage of the lack of news coverage of the march, and of course BBC which does there best never to talk or show these Important events !!!

I was happy to see so many Photographers and people Filming the event as we need more of that the people that will show the day for what it was, not some 20 second clip on the news which does not explain anything or not even any coverage at all.

Even though i was happy with my photography and in some ways took better photos then last year i was most proud of the video i made and felt it was better then the photos i took.

I love this that someone posted in the group !!!

For me i want to keep learning about the NHS, keep helping out if i can and keep helping more and more people understand why we need it.

I loved that this march was out of all of them the best for getting the message across about mental health services cuts and i am glad that more people are getting Involved and fighting for it.

I saw this video the other day and its so true about the stigma that is around mental health, and until you really speak from the heart about it and how it affects you that people really dont understand you as a person.

I feel much better as a person and i am now surrounded by the right people because i learned to talk about my issues rather then hiding away,

Many times i have wanted to produce a video like this explaining things but this video is not only well produced but also touches on a lot of good points.

This is why i carry on to keep up with my media side of things, to keep helping people, to keep learning and its a way to help my own battles with mental health, just because someone may seem busy or is quiet does not mean they are not suffering, its about time that all people inc Teens learned more about it and Together work to Minimize the bullies, minimize looking down on others and learn to listen and respect those that might need help from time to time !!!!

Thank you For Reading My first post on my new site please feel free to share it around, and also if you want to learn more in depth about the NHS then please read this blog http://999callfornhs.org.uk/999-blog/4583982961