As Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 – with its theme of kindness – draws to a close, we wanted to share just a few examples with you, and shine the spotlight on these exceptionally selfless individuals who we are lucky to call part of the RBH family.

Over the past weeks and months, we’ve been making a continued effort to check in with our team members to make sure they’re all doing OK during these unusual times – and in the process, we’ve heard some fantastic stories about various acts of kindness performed by our amazing employees.

So, as Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 – with its theme of kindness – draws to a close, we wanted to share just a few examples with you, and shine the spotlight on these exceptionally selfless individuals who we are lucky to call part of the RBH family.

Not only is our Group Maintenance Manager, Lalji Bhuva, working tirelessly across our portfolio throughout the week, he is spending his weekends at community kitchens set up at three Hindu temples in London – all of which see volunteers prepare (according to Hindu guidelines) and deliver free food to vulnerable people in need of a hot meal in their local areas. One of the temples is also working to raise enough money to donate a brand new ventilator to a local NHS trust, and Lalji has been playing a key part in the effort.

Michelle Foster, Operations Manager at Holiday Inn Express Barrow in Furness – which is preparing to re-open in the coming weeks for key workers – has also been hard at work outside the day job, setting up an online community of local people wishing to help more vulnerable members of society within Barrow. The social media group, called ‘Self Isolation Ulverston’, has provided a vital platform allowing locals to coordinate deliveries and carry out errands for those in need of assistance, to share resources, or even to simply listen to the concerns of locals impacted by lockdown and self-isolation. The group is proving to be a lifeline for a number of people in the area.

Finally, volunteers from our team at Aloft Liverpool this week visited three of the city’s main hospitals – Broadgreen, Aintree and Royal Liverpool – to deliver sweet treats to the hard-working staff which, needless to say, put huge smiles on the faces of the hospital teams.

General Manager, Takis Melitsiotis, said:

"The deliveries were really well-received – I think if the staff could have given us hugs, they would have. We just wanted to do our bit to show our support to the incredible NHS staff working hard to support our city.”

This is just a flavour of the acts of kindness being performed by members of our RBH family during the pandemic, and it goes without saying that we’re exceptionally proud of every single one of them.