SHARE GRATITUDE

Working alongside the healthcare sector, patients, and the community to ensure all healthcare personnel are genuinely appreciated. This is at the heart of our values and raison-d’être. Don and Dr Janindra founded ShareGratitude in Tortosa, Spain, a project borne out of a circumstantial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Don by Smiley News… Tell us a little bit about how ShareGratitude got started? "I travelled to Spain with my family in early March 2020, only to quickly get caught up in the epicentre of the European COVID-19 outbreak at the time. I went from sipping cava to complete isolation in a small hotel room with my wife Samaya, 13yr old son Cros and 4yr old daughter Tayla Rose for over 100 days.” "It was scary not knowing the local language or where to turn to for help" "One evening, Samaya asked me what I would do if I were a healthcare worker. Would I still go to work? Initially, my response was quick, 'yes, I would'. It's the natural thing we would all say, hoping that we believe it but also knowing that many of us won't ever have to face that decision. I realised pretty quickly and with great humility that, in fact, I actually would not. I had to accept that I was not as good as these amazing people who selflessly care for the sick, not even knowing what or how to treat the virus and how much danger they were putting themselves in; moreover, caring for people even when their colleagues were dying due to the virus.” So that inspired the change? What were your first steps? "My first thought was to round up my network and raise funds to help the healthcare workers who had lost so much. I realised, however, that many great initiatives already do this so well and that another charity is not necessarily needed.” "So I turned to how we could support the charitable initiatives differently. It was through discussing this with Dr Janindra Warusavitarne that ShareGratitude was born. He said he thought that