The circumstances leading to tragic death of Olive Cooke, the 92 year old “poppy seller” whose body was found in the Avon Gorge, were sadder than most. She sold poppies for 76 years, following on from her father who was an active member of the British Legion after he fought in World War 1. It was believed she sold some 30,000 poppies in her lifetime. Now that’s the sort of thing we should be celebrating, so-called ordinary people doing very special things. Isn’t it?
Olive was an incredibly generous person and at one time had 27 direct debits going out to various charities. And this 92 year old woman received upwards of 180 charity begging letters a month, once getting 267 in one month alone, and her phone was constantly ringing, asking her to help one charity or another. Now pardon me, but isn’t that just a little excessive? We are not talking of someone of more tender years or even someone like me, a middle-aged cynic, who despises the chuggers who stand in my way, walking directly towards them and defying them to stay exactly where they are. I have a policy of giving to charity as and when I choose, not when someone comes to my door or shoves a collecting tin in my face when I am having a pint. The very point about charity is that it is a voluntary act.
I do not suppose for one moment that the charities who circled this old lady, like vultures, meant to do her any harm, but it strikes me that her kind and generous nature was seriously taken advantage of. I have seen how these people work, starting with “Can you pay a couple of quid a month?” before they manage to increase it to a far higher figure. None of this washes with me, I’m afraid. I am not heartless, but I do know that charity exists in order to pay for the things that society believes are not important enough to pay for collectively through taxation and sometimes I feel that there are some things that simply should not be left to charity, so I figure the only way to try and bring about a societal change of attitude is to not support that charity. Most people just want to do good and sometimes people who should know better push too far.
I was in my local the other night when an old woman came round with a collecting tin, collecting for handicapped children. As I said, I give to charity when it suits me, not when it suits someone else, but most people shoved money into her collecting tin, not because they are gullible but they are kind and caring. That is why Olive Cooke gave money and lots of it.
At her inquest today, there was no mention of the charities, the family insisting that whilst their attentions were almost certainly intrusive, there was no evidence that it led directly to her death. Olive’s suicide was caused by a dreadful combination of insomnia and depression. Her family know far better than I do and I am happy to take them at their word, but there are surely lessons to be learned here.
It seems to me that we just let charities get on with it. We get regularly badgered at the front door, by post, on the phone, on the street and in the pub. For some reason, the same charity never returns to my house, but I’ll bet if I was to start shelling out on a regular basis, there would soon be a lengthy queue of people, desperate to empty my bank account.
Of course, the charities didn’t intend to inflict misery on Olive, but isn’t it time that we had better regulation to ensure that this sort of thing can never happen again? There must be thousands of people like Olive who just want to do good and to help others, but sometimes they need to be saved from themselves. I am not sure that the charities themselves are capable of regulating themselves properly but we have a Charities Commission that can. I hope they pull their finger out and make sure that people are not exploited on the basis of their kindness and compassion. We already have willing criminals who can do that in a very similar way.
