In 1946, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl published a book entitled Man’s Search For Meaning.

Out of every 40 people who went into a concentration camp during the Second World War, only one came out alive, and after his heinous experiences in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and Türkheim, Frankl was to dedicate the rest of his life to finding out the reason why.

Much like an Einstein or a Maxwell distilling the laws of the universe into a simple set of equations, Frankl enshrined the product of his analysis into an immutable sprinkling of words: those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. Stitched with fine, golden thread by broken, bloodied hands, that beatific brocade of hope will forever remain, embroidered into the lining of humanity.

Last year, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, I and the Sunday Times cartoonist Rob Murray had an idea.

Bottle Moments - a wellbeing boost in lockdown

We would put out a call on social media for key workers to tell us the things they were most looking forward to doing when the pandemic was over - a friend they’d most like to see, a place they’d most like to go, a hobby they’d most like to get back to or “just” getting a hug from someone special - and, in return, we would “bottle” them in funny, feelgood and, above all, free cartoons that we would then post back to them online using their Twitter and Instagram handles. 

Tell us your why, we said, and we’ll draw you a personalised how.

Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for. Shortly after putting out the call, Good Morning Britain picked up on the idea and the floodgates opened. Rob’s simple, heart-warming drawings brought tears to the eyes of consultants, ward sisters, headteachers and care home workers. 

Six weeks and 300 cartoons later, as restrictions started to ease, key workers began posting pictures of their “Bottle Moments” on social media as they enacted them for real. 

A student nurse was finally reunited with the Jack Russell terrier that she’d left at her parents’ house just before lockdown. 

An art teacher got back in the saddle. 

The overriding narrative, borne out by many of the hashtags - #together, #hugs, #reunited, to name but a few - was connection. With each other. With ourselves. With cockapoos, Dalmatians, and Labradoodles. After all those years in the wilds of the world wide web, we were still reassuringly human.

That summer, of course, unwittingly cocooned in the relative epidemiological idyll of 2020, never in our worst nightmares did we imagine we’d be back here again. And yet we are. 

So last month, on Good Morning Britain, Rob and I put out another call. This time for children. And this time with a bit of a difference. As an aid to homeschooling, and to help provide children with some light at the end of the tunnel, we invited them to draw their own Bottle Moments as a way of engaging them directly.

Now that schools are back and a semblance of normality has been restored, Rob is redrawing our 40 favourites, spread across four age groups. GMB presenter and Bottle Moments supporter Ben Shephard will then present these to the children on special commemorative T-shirts and Bottle Moments mugs.

If you’re in need of a bit of a boost - and who isn’t right now? - take a sneak peek inside our “bottle bank” under the hashtag #bottlemoments. Thousands of children across the UK have been bottling their hopes and dreams in a riot of colour and boundless creativity.  

We asked children their why. Now we need to give them their how. 

Kevin Dutton is a psychologist and author. He tweets @TheRealDrKev

For details of how your children or school can get involved in Bottle Moments, click here