Hadleigh mayor Frank Minns has called on all townsfolk to observe a national day of reflection, being organised by the Marie Curie charity.

Cllr Minns will be attending a short church service in the town at midday, while people are urged to stop wherever they are at noon and at 8pm when a doorstep vigil is suggested for everyone to reflect on the collective loss, offer support to those who have been bereaved and hope for a brighter future.

"Tomorrow marks a year since the first national lockdown began," said Cllr Minns. "It has been designated a national day of reflection to remember all those who have died during these terrible months and the extraordinary sacrifices and labour that so many people have dedicated to supporting our country and our community as we finally begin to see an end to our ordeal.

"We think first, naturally, of those who have died, whose lives have been lost in our hospitals and our care homes, and of people who have sometimes succumbed so quickly that our astonishing NHS could not help them. When we are told how many have died on the news, we need to remember that every one of that number - a number so huge we can scarcely comprehend it - was a deeply loved member of a family whose loss was sudden and devastating. And in so many heart-breaking cases, their passing could not be mourned as we all hope to be mourned ourselves, as their family could not be with them in their last hours and their funerals were often far from what their families had wanted for them. So let us reflect on the dead and their grieving relatives above all.

"But let us also reflect on the many thousands of lives saved by the unimaginable heroism of the NHS, who have been through an ordeal of labour and stress - and grief - that they will take a long time to recover from. I saw at first hand, at Ipswich Hospital, levels of patience and kindness that still bring me close to tears when I remember them.

"Because what we should reflect on, too, is not only the losses so many people have suffered, but what we found out about ourselves. We have discovered than within us we have huge reserves of kindness and sympathy and dedication that we perhaps didn't know we had, which have helped our town come through this terrible trial to find we are a true community - not just a community in the shallow sense of people who share a space, but in the sense of realising that we are all connected, that acts of kindness and unselfishness bind us together and make us all better neighbours, better friends, better people.

"So wherever you are tomorrow, when the church clock strikes midday, stop for a minute and think on the losses we and people we know have suffered but think also on what we have learned about our country, our town and ourselves."