As an old Bathurstian, now mother of a year 12 student and living in the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area COVID hotspot, I was moved to tears by your editorial.

COVID has been a difficult experience for many, but for our year 12 students in the COVID hotspots, the last few weeks - seeing trials and final exams cancelled and/or shifted, having to learn complex content all online, to miss socialising with friends, and to have all those beautiful rites of passage which are a part of finishing school called into question - have been incredibly stressful and upsetting.

RECENT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

To now know those students, including my daughter (whose grandparents David and Joan Goldney still live in Bathurst), will be helped out so generously in part by my old home town, and with such good cheer, had me weeping openly.

Thank you.