Unsung hero and selfless Scouser Terry shames absentee MP Nadine Dorries

Social rights advocate Terry Craven worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor and homeless - and never expected any recognition in return< /p> Wellness Advisor Terry Craven

THIS IS one of those years where heroes seem to bow out every week.

Paul O'Grady, Barry Humphries, Tony Bennett, Glenda Jackson, Sinead O'Connor and Michael Parkinson are just a few of the great talents who have recently left us for massive outpourings of love. But unsung heroes who don't get a glimmer of that fanfare are dying around us all the time.

Take the exceptional man whose funeral I attended this week, called Terry Craven. You've probably never heard of the 72-year-old social rights adviser, but you may have noticed his tireless work on behalf of the poor through this story that made national headlines.

Five years ago Stephen Smith, 63, was so ill that his weight dropped to six stone and he could not walk 10 meters without losing his breath. Yet the Department for Work and Pensions denied him benefits and told him to find a job. He contacted Terry, a retired councilor and volunteer at the Casa community center in Liverpool, who fought tenaciously against the DWP for over a year, eventually winning the case.

Stephen (pictured) received £4,000 in allowances but the tragedy took its toll and the emaciated man died months after his court victory, with his award paying for the funeral.

Disclaimer: Graphic image below

Terry said at the time, "Stephen was just a nice man who had a hard time and when he asked the government for help they humiliated him."

It was this humiliation of the voiceless that inspired Terry to devote the last decade of his life to fighting the Conservatives' vicious austerity policies.

He was there for the asylum seekers and the homeless, for the illiterate people who couldn't fill out forms, for the elderly who needed extra care, for the mothers who couldn't support themselves. needs of their sick children. For anyone who didn't know where to turn and was about to give up.

He entered homes of strangers during Covid and in his final days, despite being on morphine, he called on the authorities to harass them to help the weak and vulnerable.

As Tony Nelson, who worked with him at the Casa, said at Terry's funeral, “He made a real difference in the lives of hundreds of people by putting food on their tables. At a time when so many people want to be famous, Terry never wanted to be recognized. He just wanted to make people's lives better. »

Hearing this, I thought of Nadine Dorries and the long fight of self-pity she embarked on after being denied the status of woman Boris Johnson had promised her. How she claimed this snub was a kick in the teeth for the working class, because 'a girl from Liverpool' had been denied the chance to speak for the underdog in the House of Lords.

This comes from an absentee MP who, despite a salary of £86,584, had not staged a constituency operation to respond to calls for help from outsiders for three years.

To say Dosser Dorries isn't worthy of tying the boots of fellow Scouser Terry Craven, who never stopped fighting for the underdog and sought no reward for his work - much less a seat in...