In the run up to Christmas 2020, the Prime Minister and his staff enjoyed a series of frivolous parties in Downing Street involving alcohol, cheese boards, quizzes and speeches. At the same time, Greater Manchester had been placed into Tier 3 - scuppering any chances of my own festive work gatherings.
But that's not what I'll remember from that time of the pandemic. Just a few weeks later I was granted access to Oldham Hospital's coronavirus intensive care ward. Any of the bitterness I'd clung on to about being locked inside evaporated as soon as I stepped on to the ward, which was full at the time.
While senior government officials allowed their staff to wind down and get drunk, clinical director Redmond Tully was gearing his staff up for yet another week of misery. He told me that the run up to Christmas 2020 had been one of the busiest and most unrelenting times for his team - who were giving every last piece of energy to save people's lives.
