Emergency Services Day

Today is Emergency Services Day.

At 9am, across the country, two minutes of silence for the members of the emergency services killed in the course of their duties. Police, fire, ambulance, search and rescue. People who went towards what others run from, and did not come home.

Today is for them, and for the people who serve still. The ones who will answer a call this morning not knowing what it holds. Who carry other people’s worst days as a matter of routine. Who show up, again and again, because that is the job.

We will observe the silence with everyone else.

And we will hold one more thing quietly alongside it. Not every life this work costs is lost in the line of duty. Some are lost later, and more quietly - to suicide, to what the job leaves behind. Those deaths do not appear on any memorial, and they are rarely counted among the costs of service. We believe they should be.

Today, first and above all, is about honouring people who gave everything. Recognising every part of what this work asks, including the part that is hardest to see, is one way to do that honestly.

To everyone who serves, and to those we have lost, thank you.