One in a MILLION!
This week, we’re praising the touching words of Sharron Wilkinson, 52, from Huddersfield. She said…
Peeling open the envelope, I unfolded the letter inside. Scrawled in elegant handwriting was a letter detailing how the writer’s day had been.
There was even a watercolour painting inside.
I wonder what this person looks like, I pondered.
I’d always found that from a stranger’s handwriting, you could instantly tell so much about their personality.
But after reading letters from volunteer writers across the UK, I knew they had one trait in common – kindness.
Watching the news in March 2020, when the pandemic hit, I saw reports that care homes weren’t accepting visitors.
Even care homes local to me were closing their doors, too.
While I didn’t have any relatives living in a care home, I was heartbroken that so many elderly people were unable to see their friends and family. What will happen to them?
A lot of them couldn’t even use technology to keep in touch.
Only, an idea hit me. Throughout my life,
I’d stayed in touch with my friends through writing letters.
Letter writing is the perfect way to keep in touch,
I realised. At the time, I worked fulltime as a manager at a local charity, so I branched out to the local community to kickstart my new project.
Within a few days, I was receiving messages from locals keen to pen letters to those isolated in care homes.
And so, Give… A Few Words was born in March 2020.
Liaising with local care homes, I matched the volunteers with their pen pals based on their interests. As the letters came in, I checked them myself before they were sent out.
And I was delighted to find they were all written with so much enthusiasm. When the residents received their letters, the response was incredible.
I can’t believe the amount of effort put into this,
one relative emailed me. Some residents framed their letters on their bedroom walls.
The Give… A Few Words project exploded, too – I was inundated with volunteers.
So, with so much local support, in March 2021, I registered Give… A Few Words as a not-forprofit community interest company. I even quit my job to run it full-time, too.
Four years on, we still send out letters to local care homes. We even have writers from France, Australia, Germany, Mexico and the US!
I run free letter writing workshops both online and in-person, as well as coffee mornings where friends can all write together.
I’m still blown away by the touching responses we get.
Now, I know the true power of words.
Some of our writers are from Australia!