2020: a year of C words

‘From caring came courage’

My last editorial was for the May 2020 Urology Supplement. It is a bit of an understatement to say that it feels like a lifetime ago. We had freedom and foreign holidays back then. The title was ‘With hope in our hearts’ (from the song You'll Never Walk Alone) and was written back in March and has an almost providential ring to it. It is a tune I turn to too often. Anyone who attended the BAUN Conference 2019 will know what it symbolises for me, but I didn't expect it to become Captain Tom's (and Michael Ball's) anthem or to hear it being sung so often. It's almost the theme tune for 2020.

Conference 2019 was themed ‘resilience’. This year's conference theme, born in Bournemouth 2018, is titled ‘Harnessing Courage’. Every single nurse during the past 9 months will have used every ounce of resilience and courage they have. I know the nurses around me have, and continue to do so, day in and day out. 2020 will be remembered for many things and, increasingly, for the many new words added to our vocabulary—I'm just looking at the C words …