I simply never read books, but this title is one that I have been waiting to read for over 16 years, in fact ever since I first met Pat just after her surprise (to her) appearance on
Esther Rantzen’s Hearts of Gold TV programme back in 1996.
Sitting in her
Brundall lounge, surrounded by piles of charity documents, it was the first time I encountered this incredible Norfolk lady, who lives out her heart-felt Christian faith more than anyone I know.
Her passion for the orphans, the slumdogs, the elderly and the dying in the undescribable slums and rubbish tips of
Madurai and
Trivandrum was evident from the moment she started speaking.
It was all-consuming and, as I grew to know Pat better, I realised how it simply had to be that way to keep driving her back time after time, flying half-way across the world to just be there for each individual she met.
Pat’s modus operandi is simple - to reach out and love the individual right in front of her. From the teenage beggar dying of leprosy Pat met when she first stepped off a minibus on her initial trip, to the victims left homeless and without hope by the Asian tsunami and the elderly grannies who had nowhere to go and no-one to care for them until they met Pat.
Since an encounter with a missionary from India at the age of ten, Pat knew exactly what she was going to do with her life. But she had to fight through incapacitating illness and multiple rejections before jobs in a holiday camp, nurse training, hospital chaplaincy and for YMCA Norfolk led to her first trip to India.
From the moment she came face-to-face with that first dying youngster, Pat’s mission in life was divinely sealed.
Since then, in over 40 trips to India, first through the
Cooper-Atkinson Charitable Trust for India and then the
Vidiyal Trust, Pat and her many supporters have helped to establish homes, schools, care and tuition centres for orphans and Dalits (untouchables), feeding centres, medical clinics and outreach services for cancer and leprosy, and support for those affected by the tsunami in India and
Sri Lanka.
Hundreds if not thousands of lives have been touched, many changed forever.
Pat was awarded the MBE for her work with street children in 2007 and in 1997 she met a dying
Mother Teresa, received her blessing and was told “Don’t stop loving, don’t stop loving”.
Author
Carole Blackwell sums it up very well in her foreword to the book
Touched by Untouchables – My Life and Work in India: “So many lives transformed because a Norfolk lady cared. It is the story of how an ’ordinary person’ (as Pat calls herself) can act with extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice to make a lasting impact for good in the lives of people who are lower than those at the very bottom of the caste system. It is one of those rare books that changes the way we think for ever.”
The enduring legacy of the work can be judged by the fact that with three generations of youngsters, who previously had no future or hope, now passed through the charity’s homes, over 50 of them have gained degrees of various kinds. They have gone on to become pastors, carpenters, electricians, mechanics, bank staff, textile designers and machinists. A significant number also continue to give voluntary help at the centres.
Pat does not preach to those she touches - her actions speak far louder than her words ever could. She writes: “I know that if Jesus came back tomorrow I wouldn’t find him in Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament or even in cathedrals and churches. I’d find him in the slums. That’s where my faith lies and where I need to be.”
At the age of 65 you would think that Pat has more than played her part and is considering stepping back: “Perhaps in five more years”, she said. “But while there is an old lady to hug, a child to cuddle and while I can support my wonderful friends. Who knows.”
Touched by Untouchables – My Life and Work in India by Pat Atkinson, published by Connaught Books at £8.50 is available in Norfolk bookshops or online at Connaught Books.
Read our previous story about Pat Atkinson
You can read more about the work of the Vidiyal Trust at
www.vidiyaltrust.com