Forest supporters in the news

Until a few hours ago I didn’t know a single person among my circle of family, friends and neighbours who had been infected with coronavirus.

Late last night however I received an email. The subject line read ‘Forest supporters in the news’ and the body of the email included a link to a report in today’s Telegraph:

UK patient zero? East Sussex family may have been infected with coronavirus as early as mid-January

The gist of the story is that IT consultant Daren Bland was on a skiing holiday in Austria in January and when he returned home he developed symptoms that, in hindsight, may have been coronavirus.

Inevitably perhaps he passed it on to his wife Sarah and at least one of their four children, none of whom went to Austria.

Within hours the story was picked up by the Mail, Sun and Mirror and as I write further reports are appearing across the world.

I mention this for one reason and one reason only. I know Daren and Sarah Bland!

The first time we met was at Revolt In Style, the gala dinner Forest hosted at the Savoy Hotel, London, six days before the introduction of the smoking ban in England in 2007.

There were almost 400 guests and the only reason we met is because they shared a table with an old friend of mine who, by coincidence, lives near them. It was he who introduced us and sent the email last night.

Daren and Sarah subsequently attended several Forest events, including last year’s 40th anniversary dinner.

But my principal memory is the time Sarah joined me at a Labour conference in Bournemouth. Forest was hosting an event and we needed volunteers to distribute flyers.

Sarah came down from East Sussex and we spent two days standing outside the Royal Bath Hotel and other venues handing out leaflets and chatting to delegates.

Today she and Daren (or ‘Patient Zero’ as he will now be known) are trending worldwide. Fancy that!

Update: I spoke to Sarah this morning and her principal gripe, if I can call it that, is that none of her family has been tested to see whether the symptoms they experienced in January was definitely coronavirus.

Daren however is more concerned that delivery of the wine he ordered online has just been cancelled.

My thoughts are with them both at this difficult time.