Country mouse reflects on a great year

At a charity shoot for Great Ormond Street Hospital Mark feels we have much to be thankful for in this year of patriotic fervour

Country mouse, Country Life magazine
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Great Ormond Street Hospital is a British treasure. Founded 160 years ago by Dr Charles West to look after sick children, it has become the pre-eminent hospital of its type in the world. Any parent, consciously or subconsciously, is grateful simply knowing it exists. It is a source of pride. However, it needs money to constantly update its facilities and care for the stricken. So it was that I found myself at a charity shoot at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School.

The school has raised in excess of £3 million for the hospital in the past 15 years, a source of pride for the shooting community, which raises so much for so many good causes. The Berkshire school alone supports Help for Heroes, the Red Cross and the GWCT, among others.

But pride in being British didn't stop there. During the day, the Red Arrows burst into the skies above us, adding their own glamour, skill and bravery. The team has become an institution and pulls at our heartstrings by flying 6ft apart at 450mph. It's a feat that makes us slap our neighbours on the back, just for the sake of being alive and British. In this year that has seen such patriotic fervour, it might be time to reflect on just how lucky we all are.

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Country Life
Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.

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