This week marks the five-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, with the 2017 high-rise fire in West London killing 72 people, and injuring a further 74.
Five years on, the nation is still campaigning for justice for the victims and their families, with calls for accountability.
The heart-breaking anniversary was therefore used as a day for protest as well as solidarity, marked by a day of events, from a silent march and a multi-faith commemoration at the base of the tower, to a 72-second silence.
High profile figures were among those to mark the date, with attendees at the multi-faith commemoration including Prince William and Kate Middleton, Theresa May, Sadiq Khan and Stormzy.
Other high profile figures paid tribute from afar, with Meghan Markle reportedly marking the day with a “kind and touching gesture”.
The Duchess of Sussex reportedly got in touch with the Hubb Community Kitchen, an organisation she has previously worked with to launch the Together cookbook in 2018, raising money to help families affected by the tragedy.
“Today is a day spent looking back, remembering and reflecting”, the Hubb Community Kitchen posted to their official Instagram account before sharing the touching Meghan Markle anecdote. “I just found this picture of us all, on the day our cookbook came out. The Duchess had wrapped a book for each one of us and wrote a lovely message to each lady on the first page.”
The post continued: “Always very thoughtful, today we received a lovely voice message from the Duchess, being the 5 years anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, asking how we are, about our children and families and giving us news of hers. Just being her beautiful kind self.”
Meghan Markle has kept in touch with the Hubb Community Kitchen since their collaboration, having a Zoom call with the A-Mannar centre just last year.
“We founded Hubb together and I think what I’m most proud of is what you’ve all been able to do, not just what we created to meet an immediate need right after the fire,” the Duchess explained in the call. “If you go back to where it all began you just didn’t have a place to cook and people forget that’s what it came down to, needing the resources to do what you do so well, as we all know because we can taste it. But also to do it together and how the cookbook ended up having the impact we wanted because it raised enough to get you all the help in the kitchen you needed.”
We will continue to update this story.
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