Living with any type of Chronic Illness is far from easy, and for many of us, we learn to accept sporadic hospital admissions becoming part of our ‘norm’. However, being in a situation where the condition is life-long, there usually becomes a time (and how quickly this happens depending on how good your local care is!) where your illness has to be controlled in the community.

A common misconception is that, at this point, when frequent hospital admissions, acute ambulance rides and emergency transfers to ITU are being avoided by early intervention in the community, the person with the illness has improved drastically/is cured/no longer needs any care, which couldn’t be any further from the truth.

That’s why I’ve set up this new project - ‘Bravery Bottles’. The idea being that, for every day an obstacle has been overcome, you’ve pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone and, for the benefit of your health, taken a step that’s required bravery - however you may interpret this - you reward yourself with a bead to keep in your Bravery Bottle. For every 30 beads earned (on 30 seperate days), you’ll earn a charm for a bracelet or keyring (both having been provided upon application to be part of the project).

There are other ways to earn extra charms also; for every 100 ‘Acts of Bravery’, for introducing a friend (you’ll both get matching charms), for an extraordinary act of courage, and also for any fundraising you do for the project. A charm is sent with a card for your birthday, and each month, a participant will be chosen at random to receive a gift card of their choice. Other random competitions and events are held from time-to-time, sometimes to win a charm, other times a gift card/voucher, or occasionally for a completely different prize altogether.

The only criteria for eligibility is that you have a chronic illness; what the illness is, how it affects you, the severity etc. is irrelevant. You can apply to participate by visiting my blog (www.katiefant.com), where there will be an application form along with more information - including step-by-step instructions - under the ‘Bravery Bottles’ tab at the top of the page.

I want to give as many of the chronically ill community a chance to take part, so applications are not limited by location and participants come from all over the world, meaning postage can be quite costly. The project is completely self-funded, and any donations are used to either cover the cost of postage, buy more stock, or to purchase gift cards for prizes.

Any donation is so greatly appreciated. After already reaching the initial goal of £250 due to the kindness and generosity of so many, I have reset the goal to £500. This will go towards keeping the project completely free to all those with a chronic illness, wherever in the world they live.

I’m always so overwhwlmed by the support and kindness of others when it comes to my illness and ANY donation helps.

Thank you xxx

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