The names behind the numbers as Queen breaks silence – The Yorkshire Post says

From the tragically young, to the very old taken from loved ones before their time, it is the stories of the names behind the numbers that put the daily death toll into context.

After all, this has been a harrowing week that saw coronavirus claim its 100th life in Yorkshire – another unwanted milestone. Our thoughts are, understandably with all those, far and wide, who are mourning family and friends – individuals like the “generally awesome” Mark Barnett, a former Yorkshire teacher of the year and manager of Selby and District Food Bank.

But, poignantly, the 684 latest deaths also include NHS staff who contracted coronavirus in the line of duty – people like nurse and mother-of-three Areema Nasreen, who died at the Walsall hospital where she tended so many patients in the best traditions of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, and Margate’s Aimee O’Rourke, another mother-of-three, who has been hailed as a “nurse in a million”.

And it is a reminder, as the Archbishop of York said so persuasively on Question Time, that the number one priority is providing our NHS heroes with protection equipment – and that business and the Government need to join forces and make this happen before more lives are put at unnecessary risk.

Action, not excuses, is not needed ahead of another traumatic weekend that will culminate, on Sunday night, with the Queen’s address to the nation, a timely speech intended to reassure and comfort in equal measure.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor