While you have been reading I’ve found out something about you. You are an amazing, wonderful unique individual. You can do things the rest of us could only dream of doing. You can think vast thoughts, do grand things and achieve greatness. You’re brilliant, you are! Is there any chance of you sharing some of that brilliance?

Most people at some time in their lives look at others and think, ‘If I had what they had then I’d do more.’

The point is, people have looked at you and thought that.

Here are two stories of people who found how to give a bit of ‘you’.

Carole, the talking book

Carole was 63 before she realised she had an amazing skill. All through her life Carole was happy to play small: in her marriage, as a mother and in her job, she ‘just got on with it’. When her husband had a stroke he lost his sight in one eye and most of the sight in the other. She looked after him and used to spend hours reading him books.

A year after his stroke Carole’s husband spent a week in a local respite care home – to give her a rest. While he was there, Carole went in to visit him and would read a few chapters of a book. On the second visit, Carole was amazed to find more than a dozen people waiting to hear her read. They had been ‘listening in’ to her vivid reading during her last visit and wanted to hear more. By the end of the week, Carole was reading to 30 people. ‘Better than a radio play’, ‘I love the different voices’, ‘The way she reads it’s like you’re there’, were some of the comments.

Then requests came in. Would Carole read to the residents once or twice a week? Then via a friend of a friend would she visit another home for the elderly? That was five years ago. Even though her husband has now passed away Carole keeps on reading three or four times a week using her skill to bring joy to others.

Ric burgers

Ric cooked, in his own words, ‘the greatest burger on the planet’. He would regularly make 20 and bring them to work. Everyone loved Ric’s burgers. But his best burgers were appreciated one cold Saturday night after he’d contacted a local charity supporting homeless people and offered to cook ‘Ric burgers’ for everyone. Over 200 burgers were grilled that night.

Ric told me: ‘They get loads of people who want to help out at Christmas time but not so many in the middle of February when it’s so cold your tomato sauce is freezing. It’s the most amazing thing to do, to share my burgers.’

What skills do you have? Here’s a checklist to see what parts of the ‘brilliant you’ you can contribute:

*We all have spare blood and most people can give some. It takes less than an hour, it’s extremely rewarding and right now there is a shortage. If it’s something you have been meaning to do, then go online, find your nearest session and schedule it in your diary.