Rebekah's SMILE

When I was teaching creative writing I would tell my students that a writer writes for himself, for his or her own enjoyment. It does not matter if anyone reads what they have written or not. If somebody does read it then that is a bonus. If the reader enjoys the story then that is a double bonus. If an author makes money by way of writing then that is amazing but  it is NOT the reason for writing. Not never NO WAY.

Speaking as unofficially the most prolific writer of Amazon Kindle e-books I stand by what I said but within my writing challenge which as of the of yesterday stood at 67 books wrapped in a total of 2,292,994 words there is more to writing than scribbling words on a piece of paper.

My writing challenge covers three years from 1^st January 2020 to 31^st December 2022 after

which there will be a bonus year ending on 31^st December 2023. Time now for me to build into my scribble aka writing more than simply putting words on pieces of paper, or with Amazon words from my laptop to its bookshelf.

My family was one of the first to stay in the very first Ronald McDonald House in Britain. Today there are three hundred and sixty-five Ronald McDonald Houses around the world, I say that THE SUN NEVER SETS ON RONALD McDONALD but with each and every house being a house of love the truth is THE SUN NEVER SETS ON LOVE.

When Rebekah died she left it in her will that we should support Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Honouring Rebekah's wish I am now picking up on a project which the pandemic wrecked. It had been the plan for people to sign SMILE cards which we would post to ten different Ronal

d McDonald Houses round the world sending love to families with a child sick in hospital. With international post suspended this all came to an end.

BUT now with the post working I am picking this up and as I sit down each morning to start work I am signing SMILE cards.

Each month I will be swending cards to a different Ronald McDonald House in a different country of the world.

For the month of October 2021 I a busy signing SMILE cards for the seventy-nine families who are staying at Ronald McDonald House in Alberta Canada.

It is the same for every house of love around the world.

When a child is seriously ill and needs specialist treatment that is usually in a hospital away

from home. In Rebekah's case it was at Guys Hiospital in London. The strain on the family is very hard, I know I have been through it. It is then that Ronald McDonald House puts an arm of love around the family and says: Come and stay here close to the hospital. We will put an arm of love around your family and keep you together.

Since Rebekah died her freinds and family have done many things to support Ronald McDonald but support does not always mean money. Yes, money is important. Families are NOT

charged to stay at Ronald McDonald House and fund raising has to happen but there is more to support than money. No matter what form that support takes LOVE is at the centre.

These pictures I am now sharing have all been taken in Ronald McDonald House in Alberta, Canada. These are REAL people I am wrapping into my writing by way of our SMILE card.

By Sunday 31st October I will have signed seventy-nine cards then on Monday 1st November they will be posted to Canada and the lovely people staying with Ronald.

I make a few quid from book Royalties within Amazon and will use this to pay for the printing of cards, lamininating and then posting.

The cards will be sent quietly and anonymously. They will be quietly and anonymously sent from myself as the author of the books and those who read them.

Each month a different Ronald McDonald House and its families staying within its love.

Rebekah was always known as Little Miss Sunshine. She spent most of her childhood in and out of hospital. She had a very happy life no matter what her illness brought to her. I challenge anyone to find a photograph of her where she is not SMILING.

In my book Our Rebekah A Love Story From Our NHS I tell the story of how doctors and nurses did not treat Rebekah but cared for her so making that SMILE possible.

My recent e-book The Heart And Face Of A Coward - My Heart And My Face I speak about blood and organ donation. Rebekah's transplant was a special SMILE given to my little girl by a 

donor family who had just lost their little boy.

In the 2021 re-publication of my original 1991 book In Search Of The Leons i speak of the love and support my students at Leon School gave to me during thos hard times.

Yes, there is more to writing than scribbling words on a piece of paper. As I seek to establish myself as the world's most prolific writer of Amazon e-books this is one of the ways I will be building different SMILES and LOVE into those words.