Ali

Until you spread your wings, you'll never know how far you can fly :-)

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Lovely week in #Cromer with @SM_Gerrard visiting places we have passed lots of times including #Thursfoodsteammuseum and #Muckleburghmilitarymuseum thankful for the cover for my caring duties

[Ali @AliNewt5]

@LindaChibuzor @SaraTurle @shiv_smith @KathEvans2 @NorthwayRuth @RavyGabrria @DebDjh @jomwlever @TheJaneWarne @warnetony @MawdsleyMark You can't beat a physical book, dive in. Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Lovely #Cromer

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#NHS1000miles

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Living a different life at the moment but still getting my steps/ swimming lengths when I can. #Caring

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles

[Ali @AliNewt5]

Thank you so much for donating on 01/03/2026. Your donation has now been issued to St James' Hospital, Leeds. Every donation counts. @GiveBloodNHS

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
RIP Barney #foreveryoung

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#NHS1000miles
Donation no: 75 today
@GiveBloodNHS

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

In 1943, Paris - a woman sits in a Gestapo interrogation room, her feet bleeding, her body broken.

The officers across from her know she's holding secrets. Names of British agents. Locations of resistance safe houses. Intelligence that could dismantle entire networks across France.

They've already started the torture. Her toenails are being removed, one at a time. Soon they'll use heated irons on her back. They'll lock her in darkness for weeks. They'll promise her life in exchange for just one name.

She's a 30-year-old mother of three. Not a soldier. Not a spy by training. Just a French-born housewife who was living quietly in England until Hitler's armies swallowed her homeland.

That's when Odette Sansom made a choice that most of us will never have to make. She left her three daughters behind and volunteered for Britain's Special Operations Executive, the shadow organization built to sabotage Nazi operations from within.

The SOE didn't want career military. They wanted people who could disappear into occupied territory. People who spoke native French. People willing to accept that capture likely meant torture and execution.

Odette knew the odds. She volunteered anyway.

By 1942, she was operating in occupied France under the codename "Lise," coordinating resistance cells, organizing sabotage, funneling intelligence back to London. She worked alongside Captain Peter Churchill, building networks that struck at German supply lines and communications.

For months, they were ghosts. Then a collaborator sold them out.

Now she's in this room. In this chair. Facing men who have perfected the art of breaking human beings.

And here's what they don't understand: Odette Sansom has already decided she won't break. Not for pain. Not for promises. Not even to save her own life.

Because she knows that every name she gives means another agent tortured. Another resistance fighter executed. Another family destroyed.

So she gives them nothing. Through months of interrogation. Through agony most of us can't fathom. Through solitary confinement and death threats.

Nothing.

The Gestapo eventually realizes they can't break her. They send her to Ravensbrück concentration camp, condemned under "Night and Fog" protocol, prisoners meant to vanish without trace.

She survives more than a year there by convincing the commandant she's related to Winston Churchill. It's a complete lie, but it keeps her alive.

When Allied forces arrive in 1945, that same commandant tries using her as a bargaining chip. The moment they reach American lines, Odette identifies him as a war criminal. He's arrested on the spot.

Britain awarded her the George Cross, the highest civilian honor for courage. The citation was clear: for refusing to betray her comrades despite torture that would break nearly anyone.

Then in 1951, someone stole the medal from her home. Months later, it arrived in the mail with an anonymous note. The thief had researched what it represented and couldn't live with keeping it.

Even criminals recognized what that medal meant.

Odette Sansom Hallowes lived to 82, spending decades honoring fallen comrades and embodying quiet strength. She always insisted she'd simply done what anyone should do.

But that's not true. What she did was extraordinary. She proved that the most powerful resistance to tyranny isn't violence. It's the absolute refusal to break, no matter the cost.

📷© Imperial War Museums (Restored & Colorized)

© Daughters of Time

#drthehistories

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles

[Ali @AliNewt5]

@helshow1 Thanks Helen. I am sure they will. Xx

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
The start of a sabbatical after a very emotional work week. This is not the end...

[Ali @AliNewt5]

@AnitaRolfe Thanks Anita. I will be in touch.

[Ali @AliNewt5]

@SaraTurle Thanks Sara, saying goodbye to much loved colleagues is always hard but as one door closes another one opens. Everything works out in the end. A number left on Friday.

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Not posted for a while, work + caring. Grave run today. #Commonwealthgraves

[Rowetta🎙 @Rowetta]

🇧🇷 This is Beautiful 🙌🏽❤️🕊️

@liamgallagher @NoelGallagher @oasis 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

🎥: Brasil glowpop

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Work and home home for me with steps along the way

[Dr. Carl Hindy @DrCarlHindy]

IF I GET DEMENTIA…..
I’d like my family to hang this wish list up on the wall where I live. I want them to remember these things.

1a. Every time you enter the room announce yourself. “Hi Dad - it’s Amanda.”
NEVER ask- Do you know who I am??? That causes anxiety.

• If I get dementia, I want my friends and family to embrace my reality.

• If I think my spouse is still alive, or if I think we’re visiting my parents for dinner, let me believe those things. I’ll be much happier for it.

• If I get dementia, don’t argue with me about what is true for me versus what is true for you.

• If I get dementia, and I am not sure who you are, do not take it personally. My timeline is confusing to me.

• If I get dementia, and can no longer use utensils, do not start feeding me. Instead, switch me to a finger-food diet, and see if I can still feed myself.

• If I get dementia, and I am sad or anxious, hold my hand and listen. Do not tell me that my feelings are unfounded.

• If I get dementia, I don’t want to be treated like a child. Talk to me like the adult that I am.

• If I get dementia, I still want to enjoy the things that I’ve always enjoyed. Help me find a way to exercise, read, and visit with friends.

• If I get dementia, ask me to tell you a story from my past.

• If I get dementia, and I become agitated, take the time to figure out what is bothering me.

• If I get dementia, treat me the way that you would want to be treated.

• If I get dementia, make sure that there are plenty of snacks for me in the house. Even now if I don’t eat I get angry, and if I have dementia, I may have trouble explaining what I need.

• If I get dementia, don’t talk about me as if I’m not in the room.

• If I get dementia, don’t feel guilty if you cannot care for me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s not your fault, and you’ve done your best. Find someone who can help you, or choose a great new place for me to live. With a bus and activities!!

• If I get dementia, and I live in a dementia care community, please visit me often.

• If I get dementia, don’t act frustrated if I mix up names, events, or places.
Take a deep breath. It’s not my fault.

• If I get dementia, make sure I always have my favorite music playing within earshot.

• If I get dementia, and I like to pick up items and carry them around, help me return those items to their original place.

• If I get dementia, don’t exclude me from parties and family gatherings.

• If I get dementia, know that I still like receiving hugs or handshakes.

• If I get dementia, remember that I am still the person you know and love.”

ᴄᴏᴘʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴀsᴛᴇ in Honor of someone you know or knew who has dementia. In Honor of all those I know and love and lost who are fighting Dementia/Alzheimer’s.

[Ali @AliNewt5]

#nhs1000miles
Great weekend with friends, TheFeds, in #Ludlow, including a climb up the church tower