My family are all pretty damn good, especially when there are problems around. But the biggest hero for the rest of us is my brother Paul. He's the one we call when the computers stop working, or when we need a program to do something the other stuff won't, he's the one who will build us a Dalek voice modulator or a radio, or a four track recording machine. He's also the one we call when the bank account bottoms out - he doesn't judge or criticise, just helps. He's been there for each nephew and niece, building guitar amps, fixing daft toys like those talking fish, rescuing odd bits out of skips and making them work. In the long years when I was living alone in London we'd have regular dinner dates and he always insisted on paying if we went out.   He helps other people too, from the local Indian restaurant owner who needs his outside menu to be lit properly to the friend of a friend of a friend who might need a CCTV set up organised for their car sales business, and generally all the reward he asks for is a meal.
He's been the one who has done the most for our ageing parents, from devising window opening gizmos and other mobility aids to cleaning up embarassing "accidents", and, probably most usefully of all, cheering my Mum up when she was most worried about her own health and my Dad's.

So if anyone deserves medals, haloes or sainthood, it's Paul.

Anne