Do you ever find that, already at your wit’s end, something new explodes in and knocks you flat? Before that, you were saying to yourself, this is as much as I can take. Now, the next thing is pressing down on top of everything else.

I come across so many people who have far too many troubles, far too many burdens. Often the only question you can ask is, ‘how much more?’

Human capabilities are astounding. I bandy round my ‘pushed beyond my limit’ phrase but then I meet people who have a parent each in a critical condition in hospital, or the woman I met today who has just found out her cancer’s come back.

She’s younger than me.

Those things have forced me to look outside of myself and realise other people need help more than I do. After hearing that girl, I felt so ashamed.

Plato said, ‘be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle’. It is so easy to get lost in our own lives, when people on either side of us are drowning. Sometimes it only takes a minute to get in step with them. Other times, they need your hand for longer.

Maybe you’re the person who’s overwrought, or maybe you know someone who is.

Why don’t we try to share round the burdens for a bit?