chanel5 - //Many years ago my hero was Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans. We had heard such stories of him, he had become almost a mystical figure. Eventually I met him, first at Swanwick, then at York University. I won't criticise the man, he was instrumental in bringing about help to people for whom no help was available. But there were aspects of his character that were surprising and off-putting. No longer a hero. //
I worked as a Samaritan volunteer for three years, and part of the remit of those who could and wanted to do it, was to visit schools and societies to talk about Chad, the history of the organisation, and it's work, and what we experienced on the proverbial 'front line'.
The word around the organisation was that CV was ‘something of a character’ which I think was a polite way of saying he was difficult, although no-one ever went into details, so we glossed over that bit, and carried on talking about the fantastic organisation that he founded.