2020 – the year that will be remembered as one of the most challenging years people have experienced in their lifetime.
Who would have imagined that a mention in the news by the World Health Organisation in January of a viral disease in Wuhan China, would have exploded into the global giant that changed the world and touched everybody’s lives?
Despite the hard to digest daily statistics in the headlines, the continuous, and ongoing struggle to cope with patients in hospitals around the world and the very real difficulty of trying to cope physically and mentally in a ‘lockdown’ world, there was a surprising surge of ‘togetherness’…..albeit socially distanced.
The first UK lockdown saw empty supermarket shelves, toilet roll stockpiling and banana bread baking. A small idea with a huge impact was clapping for the NHS and key workers – the UK’s way of trying to show their heartfelt appreciation for the dedication and bravery of people on the front line. The clapping every Thursday brought about a much-needed community spirit and acknowledgement that despite the desperate times, everyone cared about the people ‘who cared for people’.
This year also gave us the opportunity to see our politicians challenged on a daily basis, understand some of the science behind how viruses spread and realise why it is so vital to continue to follow the ‘hands, face, space’ rules.
2020 made us appreciate how brilliant technology was for keeping us connected with loved ones, friends and work colleagues. It was a revolution for people who had never used it before and a lifeline for those who were too vulnerable to leave their homes and gave companies like Aparito the opportunity to help people who were most in need. It was a time of loss, loneliness and hardship but when faced with great demand people responded with kindness and resilience.
Aparito worked remotely throughout the pandemic and as the year ends, we challenged everyone to sum up their experience of 2020 in one sentence, here are their thoughts:
2020 was filled with surprises and strengthened my existing relationships.
Aycan
This year has been unexpected but surprisingly it brought me lots of wonderful surprises both in my professional and personal life!
Sandra
2020 was like a scary ride for me where I learnt, grew, and made progress in my career while being scared for my life.
Jaikiran
2020 has been a year where so much happened, while so very, very little happened.
Clare
The year 2020, although seemed short yet was quite eventful; from the pandemic, to working from home with kids, to stockpiling, to BLM protest, to a decisive US election and likely no deal Brexit.
Sam
2020 for me has meant a year full of personal and professional achievements, got stuck abroad for 5 months, learnt a new language, received a promotion and watched this company thrive and grow tremendously and its something I am so proud to be a part of.
Amy
For me, 2020 meant branching out, while staying inside.
Matthew
2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year as Covid struck, home schooling kicked in and being in lockdown. Then an exciting opportunity at Aparito arrived, lockdown eased and some normality resumed. I hope this is the start of better times to come!
Nathan
2020 started with me joining Aparito in January. Little did I know that that by the end of the year the company would grow from 9 to 26 employees, there would be a global pandemic, our technology offering would expand and we’d see it deployed in lots of new and exciting studies to help patients. It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride and I’m very proud to have been part of the journey – here’s to 2021 where we have some more big plans for Aparito!
Dan
Exhausting and enabling. Covid has been devastating, but it has allowed new ways of working to surface, and a collective spirit that I hope will be cherished in the future.
Elin
2020 has been challenging for many different reasons, but starting my job at Aparito gave me an escape and a reason to be optimistic about the future.
Maddie
With a change of career after 40 years and not being able to see family and friends for me 2020 has been… Unprecedented both professionally and personally.
Rachel
A peculiar year with unexpected opportunities.
Obuchinezia
An emotional year that made me feel grateful for many things; not being alone, having a job and a home, the peace that came with no traffic, birdsong in the evening and the huge kindness of people.
Rosemary
Remote!
Ross
A year of reinforcing foundations with great product, compliance and operations in a year of great challenges for all, so that we can develop sales processes in 2021 to make Atom5™ a world-leading patient management platform.
Chris
2020 has been a crazy year for everyone but moving to a company like Aparito has been fantastic, the team and company ethos is something that has made sure that the challenges of 2020 have brought positive changes out of myself!
Gary
It’s been an absolute roller-coaster of a year with plenty of lows, but if I look back from a purely personal point of view, there really have been a lot of highs too. Bring on 2021!
Ian
Finally…… with the announcement yesterday of another vaccine being approved, we can be thankful for the brilliant minds of scientists and the chance to get back to a world we didn’t realise was quite so good!