CHILDREN are being encouraged to keep a coronavirus diary, a personal record of this momentous period in world history.
George Fisher, a 64-year-old self-employed construction worker from Gorse Hall Road, Stalybridge, has hit upon the idea.
He said: “In my lifetime I have seen men on the moon and the Berlin wall dismantled but nothing on this scale. It is unique and there is every chance there won’t be anything like this ever again.
“That is why I thought it would be great to encourage children while they are at home to keep a diary so they can write up each day how it is affecting them.
“It is a record which can be passed down through generations, a view of how they saw it through their eyes. If they don’t do it, the information will be lost so let’s do it now while memories are fresh.
“If the whole country did it, it would provide a brilliant journal, something like a Domesday Book.”
George’s 12-year-old grand-daughter Serena Cunningham is keeping a diary.
He continued: “It will be a great record to have in 20 or 30 years when she and today’s children have kids and tell them what it was like when they were forced to stay indoors and couldn’t move freely.
“I am sure they would find it hard to believe that happened in 2020.”
George added that information from diaries could be of use to future Governments to understand the effects coronavirus had on children.
He said: “There was something similar during the Second World War when children in London had to keep diaries as homework.
“It showed the psychological effect on kids so the Government had an insight into the distress which was caused by the blitz.”
George added the coronavirus has proved what a great country we live it and what a great National Health Service we have.