HOW KIND COULD YOU BE?

Shona Sibary, 51, spent a week doing random acts of kindness, but it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be…

- SHONA SIBARY

MONDAY

The first one is a no-brainer. I have a friend with a dog called Cleo who is half whippet, half cocker spaniel (we call her a ‘cockpit’). This friend has just come out of hospital having had a hysterectomy and can’t even get to the loo, let alone take her crazy (and, quite frankly, hyperactive) pup for a walk. After finishing my freelance writing job for the day, I drag 13-year-old Dolly away from the TV to come with me, thus killing two birds with one stone, and we take Cleo on an epic six-mile romp around Arundel. The dog nearly garrottes herself on a barbed wire fence trying to get into a sheep field, and the teenager moans all the way around, but mission accomplished. My friend is so grateful she bursts into tears and I promise I will return (alone) next week and do it again. I’m not sure I can cope with walking Cleo every day – I’m not that kind – but once a week feels benevolent enough for now.

TUESDAY 

There is such a homeless problem where we live and I have this constant, gnawing sense of guilt that I don’t do more on a personal level to help. We have some amazing charities in town who work tirelessly to make the lives of those sleeping rough just that bit more tolerable, but I’m always wondering what more there is to do. Last night I was going to order a takeaway as a treat for the family, but when they all started bickering about who was getting what and behaving in such an appallingly entitled way, I was livid. Then I had an epiphany.

‘You can all have beans on toast,’ I ranted. ‘I’m going to buy Chinese for someone who actually appreciates it!’