Richard Baum

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Sir Edmund Hillary this morning. Sir Edmund was, of course, the first man to conquer Mount Everest, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

I never met the man, nor do I have any interest in mountaineering beyond thinking that it’s a pretty impressive thing to do. I climbed Ben More on Mull last summer, which is about 3% as high as Everest, and that was about as mountainous as I get. But Sir Edmund’s passing marks another sad milestone, I think, as yet another of our dashing heroes leaves us, and leaves a world where his like may not ever come again.

I don’t like it when old explorers die, because with them dies a whole age of exploration. An age of mystery and of real struggle to conquer things which, nowadays, we can master at the flick of a switch and the touch of a button. Climbing Mount Everest today is still an incredible achievement, but one which thousands can achieve because the mapping, the equipment and the technology exists to help them in ways that fifty five years ago when Hillary did it were the stuff of fantasy. It’s the same with the Poles, and the depths of the oceans and the corners of the earth. It’s still bloody hard to do it, and I probably couldn’t in a thousand years – but there are fewer and fewer things that we can do that just haven’t been done before.

All I’ve got to do is hop on a plane, and tomorrow I’ll be in Australia, probably flying way over Mount Everest on the way. All I’ve got to do is flick on GoogleEarth, and I can see any where from any angle. It’s great!

But at the same time, who’ve we got left for heroes? David Beckham? Britney Spears? Kerry Katona and her Iceland adverts? As real trailblazing feats become ever more difficult to think up, we end up idolising the trivial at the expense of the brave.

I think that genuine heroes are so often forgotten about whilst the reputations of the mediocre live on. I am a big fan of the space programme, and I know a fair bit about it. But it amazes me how many of my friends can’t name more than one or, at most, two men who’ve walked on the Moon. Who was the first American in space? Nobody knows Alan Shepherd’s name. Who was the third man on the Moon? Nobody knows Pete Conrad’s name (or that he too has died). And yet ask them to name all five members of Girls Aloud, and you’re in with a shout. My mates know that Banksy is an artist, because he has stencilled some rats on walls. But do they know that Alan Bean is also an artist, and he uses for inspiration the memories he accrued on his space rocket journey to the Moon and back on Apollo 12? I doubt it.

Whilst it’s hard to find a mountain nobody’s climbed though, it isn’t hard to find real heroes if you look hard enough. I was just on the phone to a friend of mine who has been station manager at North Manchester General Hospital’s hospital radio station for over ten years. Entirely voluntarily and without a penny in recompense, here’s a man who has given a decade and more to helping local sick people feel better, and given countless young people a leg-up into a career in broadcasting. He’s a proper gent as well. And he’s just one guy I happen to know. I come across others all the time across my ward and all of Bury. People on resident’s committees, school governors, friends of parks and local groups of people who give up hours and days of their free time to help the community. They are real heroes, and they deserve our recognition too.

So as Sir Edmund Hillary passes away, and the remaining heroes of our age live largely forgotten whilst their feats illicit little more than a shrug of the shoulders, don’t concentrate on the rubbish that fills the papers in its place. I couldn’t care less which of the members of “Same Difference” has the more talent or how is the best dancer on “Strictly.” And I don’t see why anyone else should either. Real heroes and real issues are right in front of us and go largely ignored. It’s a shame, I think, and one so easily remedied if we all got involved and joined these local heroes in working hard for the good of the community.

Rick