Now we are five…
Thirteen years ago, two very different people meet at a yoga holiday in India in 2009. If Alison and Brian had been told then that he would face bowel cancer and she would write letters to him to get him through years of treatment, and that the experience would lead them to create a charity to encourage others to do the same - they wouldn't have believed it.
In fact, we still can't believe it, but five years ago we started something, not knowing where it would take us. We have delivered almost 25,000 donated letters and have over 3300 letter writers on our database. We genuinely couldn't do what we've done without our community’s support.
We want to get everyone involved in the celebrations and there’s a whole host of birthday loveliness to come!
#FiveForFive - help us celebrate with even more letters!
One of the ways we want to celebrate our 5th birthday is to ask you to join in our Five For Five campaign. All you need to do is challenge yourself to do five of something and donate £5 to us. You might write five letters, phone five friends, run 5km, walk five miles, bake five cookies.
We'd love to see what you do for your Five For Five challenge - tag us on social media with #FiveForFive and donate your £5 here.
This campaign will support the additional requests we're receiving every day for letters. Since this wonderful new website went live last month we have seen a huge increase in the number of people signing up to write and receive letters. The #FiveForFive will help us raise money to pay for the additional letter writing kits needed and to ensure the donated letters are distributed as needed to those living with cancer.
Let’s P-A-R-T-Y
Our birthday party is going to be a wonderful way to come together with as many of our writers and letter recipients as possible. We’ve kept the event online to make sure our worldwide community can join us to celebrate and see the impact your letters have had on those living with cancer. We can't wait to virtually party with you! If you haven’t already signed up, you can RSVP via Eventbrite here.
A little yet kitsch sneak peek
How's this for a delicious little look at what we've got in store for you with The Kitsch Hen? On 22nd March we’ll be launching a big birthday giveaway like no other! Keep an eye on our Instagram for more about how you can get your hands on these birthday treats, and for news on how Caroline will be working with us to bring these goodies to those in need.
Last but not least, let’s Spring forward together
On 29th March at 7pm, our first quarterly letter writing workshop is here! Book your place via Eventbrite, you’ll get your free stationery box and then join us at the workshop to write all about Spring.
We’re very excited to announce that we will be joined by Miranda Keeling. Inspired by her popular Twitter account, Miranda has written The Year I Stopped to Notice which brings together her observations of the magic, humour and strangeness of ordinary life. Together, we’ll take our imaginations forward, along with the clocks; who knows where they'll end up!
No doubt there will be more lovely birthday surprises to come, but for now, thank you for celebrating with us!