THIS week is ‘National Aromantic Week’. See https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/5-things-you-should-know-about-aromantic-people for more details.  

Once I’d got over the hurdle of misreading that as ‘aromatic’ and realised it wasn’t a perfume-awareness puff piece from a cosmetics’ house, I was able to establish that this is a week for people who aren’t attracted to other people in a romantic way. 

Having a day, a week and even a month dedicated to ‘awareness’ of an issue is now part of our daily news cycle and an essential activity for every advocacy, campaign group and charity. According to University College London’s wellbeing website, I’ve just missed celebrating ‘National Obesity Week’, managed to ignore ‘Love your liver month’ but can look forward to a smorgasbord of choices for the rest of the year.

Upcoming events include: ‘National Salt Awareness week’ for example. In this case, I should say it’s not sponsored by Maldon Salt or Walkers crisps but is a Dept of Health event presumably intending to get us to cut salt from our diets and reduce blood pressure.

Are there too many of these ‘days’ now to cut through the noise of our busy everyday lives? I understand the attraction to fundraisers and campaign directors for pinning awareness on a ‘day’ – it can work especially with celebrity endorsement. But how are we citizens meant to navigate so many hundreds of these days? How much emotional empathy do we have spare? Which of so many worthy causes should be the grateful recipients of our increasingly mythical ‘spare change’?

‘Deaf awareness week’ is apparently happening in May and as a moderately deaf person myself, I shall look forward to whatever stories and information make it onto the news-stands and sofas of breakfast time TV. I’m not confident though as ‘hearing’ is going to be clashing with far better funded charities: stroke; osteoporosis, not to mention a ‘walking month’!

Fundraising is great but it should be surplus to not in place of government spending. So asked what my own top 3 national awareness campaigns would be if I had power, it’s easy to answer:

► 'Fund our National Health Service’

► ‘Put more police on the streets’

► ’Spend more on schools.’  

Because if we don’t have health, security and knowledge, no amount of awareness days and begging for cash-strapped individuals to pay up for what were once well-funded public services will do.

In the US there is a well-funded move to get young people and those who typically don’t vote to register for elections and exercise their democratic rights in the voting booth. It’s called ‘Rock the vote’.  In this country, however, we seem to have more of a ‘Wreck the vote’ situation! Our government have introduced a requirement for voter identification at polling stations.

This makes it harder to vote, especially for those on the fringes of our society who may not have passports, driving licences and so on.  There is a concerning silence from government regarding motivating all our communities to take part in the democratic process. 

So, thinking further, if I could only nominate one issue for national awareness that would really make a difference to democracy and all our lives, it would definitely be this: ‘You matter, your vote matters, make sure you use it!’