the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GM 9
News
After taking two of her children to
school Laura Date decided to explore
the Cotswold town she and her family
had recently moved to.
Walking along a riverside path in
Cirencester, Gloucestershire, with her
18-month-old daughter she came
across a bouquet of flowers on a bench,
with a note that read: “Hello stranger!
If you find these flowers they were
meant for you. Please take them home
and enjoy them, you deserve it.”
They had been left by the Cirencester
Kindness Project, and all week bou-
quets have been found at bus stops and
on park benches. “It was just a really
lovely, selfless act of kindness that
brightened our day,” Ms Date said. “We
have only just moved our little family
here from Woking [Surrey] and some-
thing like this made us think that, yes,
we have made the right decision.”
The random acts of kindness started
in London but have now spread to the
Cotswolds and beyond. Jenny Webster,
30, a circus performer, set up the Ciren-
cester project after her sister came
across a bouquet in London which
brightened her day.
“My sister Claire is a surgeon at
Queen Mary’s and the flowers were just
perfect because she has been working
really hard so it was just awesome,” Ms
Webster said. “She was really tearful
when she received them and was really
touched.” Ms Webster, who has lived in
London for the past ten years but
Random acts of kindness
bloom across the country
moved back home to Cirencester when
the pandemic ended her work, saw it as
a sign and set up her own kindness
project in the Cotswolds town.
“It’s nice to be nice and give to some-
one else,” she said. “To know you have
enriched someone’s day and made
them smile, it’s such a nice thing.”
She started the project by buying a
bunch of flowers and leaving them with
a note on a bench in the town, linking it
to a Facebook page she created.
Since then businesses and residents
have donated money so Ms Webster
can buy more flowers. “A lovely lady
called Margaret received the second
bunch of flowers,” she said. “Passers-by
found them and gave them to her as she
was going past on a mobility scooter.
She was just beaming from ear to ear in
the photograph they sent, it’s so lovely.
“Her daughter and granddaughter
got in touch to say it made her week.
They have bought a bunch of flowers
for us now and they are paying it for-
ward in other ways, which is exactly
how the project should go ahead.”
Ms Date has ordered some Christ-
mas decorations that she will hang up
in public spaces for people to take home
and Margaret’s daughter, who works at
a nursery, is working on a project with
the children she looks after.
Lady Bathurst joined the movement
by laying some flowers on Thursday on
a public bench in Cirencester Park,
which is part of her estate, and a pupil at
the local primary school left some flow-
ers on a bench for a stranger.
Friends of Ms Webster who live else-
where in the country have said they will
now begin their own projects in their
home towns.
“A lot of friends asked if they could
donate to our project but I told them to
do it in their area. Just leave something
and set up a Facebook group and see
how it goes.”
The woman who began the London
Kindness Project on Instagram last
month said she began leaving bouquets
of flowers on her way home from work
to help people having a bad day.
The 24-year-old creative designer,
who wants to remain anonymous, said:
"I work quite long hours and was going
through some things in my personal life
and I looked around and thought, ‘You
never know what the people around
you are going through.’ I always put the
flowers out at the end of the day so if
someone has had a bad day they know
someone is there for them, even if it’s a
stranger.”
She has placed ten bouquets since thestart of last month, with
messages such as: “Keep
smiling, better times are
coming.”
“I saw one girl pick some up as I walk-
ed away from them and she messaged
me on Instagram to thank me,” she said.
“It would be great if it was done across
the country. It doesn’t have to be flow-
ers, it could just be a nice note.”
A wonderful way to lift everyone’s
spirits, leading article, page 37Will Humphries
Southwest Correspondent
eupasIwalk-A letter made public for the first time
from George VI to his doctor shortly
before his death reveals the King
thought he would regain his health.
The Queen’s father wrote the poign-
ant letter to his physician, Sir Daniel
Davies, thanking him for his help in his
fight against lung cancer and apologis-
ing for the “many days of worry” he
feared he had put him through.
George VI said that his time spent at
Sandringham over Christmas 1951 had
done him good.
He signed off by offering Sir Daniel
his good wishes for 1952. Tragically, the
King never recovered from the major
operation to remove his left lung and
died in his sleep on February 6, 1952.
Sir Daniel died in 1966 and his estate,
including the King’s letter, was passed
Will Humphries
Letter worth a king’s ransom
down to his daughter. She died in 2018
and the family have decided to sell it.
The handwritten letter is in black ink
on embossed Sandringham stationery
and is dated December 27, 1951.
The King wrote: “I must write to
thank you for your help in my long ill-
ness. I fear I have caused you many days
of worry during the last few months.
“But since the seat of my infection has
been removed I do feel that I can regain
my health and the few days here have
done me good. I have used a gun with no
ill effects... Mrs Linton’s exercises and
massage have been invaluable.”
Mrs Linton was the physiotherapist
Winifred Linton.
The letter is being sold by Historical
& Collectable next Saturday with a pre-
sale estimate of £3,000. Andrew Hilton,
the auctioneer, said: “It is testament to
the thoughtfulness of the man.”So far in London ten bouquet have
been left to cheer up commuters
Jenny Webster set up the Cirencester project after her sister was given flowers