Remembering the horrors of nuclear war

A gathering by the Wey Navigation canal at Send drew attention to the horrors of nuclear weapons, as those present remembered the hundreds of thousands of people who were killed in the first use of atomic bombs in war.

As dusk fell on a beautiful summer evening, members of Woking Action for Peace and friends were holding their annual commemoration of the attacks of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The bombs, dropped to try to force the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people. Thousands who escaped death suffered terrible injuries, ill health and hardships beyond description for many years after the war.

This year, because of the extreme fire risk, we floated white flower petals on the canal instead of tealights in grapefruit skins.

Songs associated with the peace movement were sung and the readings included an extract of an address made by the Japanese Prime Minister, Ishiba Shigeru, at a Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony.

He said many of the victims were ordinary citizens, the reality of their dreams and bright futures stripped away from them mercilessly in a single instant. People who had been relishing life were transformed in the blink of an eye to mere silhouettes on stonework, the consequence of a 4,000-degree blast of thermal radiation.

Ignoring the past and the potential future horrors caused by atomic weapons, the UK Government is spending at least £205billion on a new nuclear weapons system.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament calls on the Government to invest this money in our NHS, build more homes and a better public transport system. We also need fair-priced renewable energy as part of solving the climate emergency.

It will be courageous of our Government if it scraps the UK’s nuclear weapons systems but the benefits to mankind could be enormous.

Keith Scott

Woking Action for Peace spokesperson

Walk the Parks

I am writing to encourage your readers to take part in Kidney Care UK’s Walk the Parks event on 12 September, starting at Hyde Park in London.

As the UK’s leading kidney patient support charity we exist to ensure that no one faces kidney disease alone but we can’t do this all by ourselves, we need your readers’ support.

Did you know that right now 104 people in Surrey are on the transplant waiting list, waiting for that life-changing call?And that 80 per cent of these will be waiting for a kidney transplant?

Accessible 2, 5 and 10-mile options are available, so however you choose to Walk the Park (wheel, scoot, toddle, or just have a leisurely stroll with friends, family and even four legged companions) you’ll be joining a community who are all walking for kidney disease, for those on dialysis, and for those waiting for a transplant.

If getting to London isn’t possible, your readers can take part virtually in one of Surrey’s stunning local parks.

Sign up here: https://fundraise.kidneycareuk.org/event/walk-the-parks/

Jasmine Williams, Events Manager

Kidney Care UK