I rebuilt my life through creative writing.

In November 1992, I sustained a traumatic brain injury that erased my memories and left me permanently disabled. Then ten months months later, after relearning basic skills such as how to read and write, I was sent to an adolescent psychiatry unit (because there was no specialised brain injury rehab facilities for survivors who were under eighteen).

Understandably, I was furious with the world. I was also incredibly lonely and bored out of my skull because I’d been separated from my friends. At first I tried keeping in touch via letters, but teens in 1993 were not great at replying, and the nurses in the unit were even worse at posting my mail.

Everything changed though when I saw a call-out in Victor Bog-off’s letters page in Big! magazine. He wanted kids to write in and moan about how terrible their life was - well, I thought, I had plenty of material!

Writing things down helped. So I continued to write to Victor two to three times a week every week for the three and a half months I was in the unit. I never expected anyone to read my words never mind print them, so I was incredibly shocked when I went back to school in January 1994 and a girl from another class shouted at me across the lunch room: ‘Oh my god, you’re famous!’

I never wrote to Victor’s letters page again after that. I didn’t have to: I’d been validated. I did, however, keep on writing.

Fast forward thirty-one years, and I am now a memoirist, a short story writer and an award-winning novelist whose work is included in the sqa syllabus for high school students. I’ve participated in many literary festivals, visited many high schools to talk about my writing and last year I was judge for the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writer’s Awards.

My life has not always been easy, being a writer hasn’t been easy - there have been as many obstacles as there have been boons. One constant source of support, however, has been the Scottish book trust: they’ve provided training courses, a mentor and many, many other opportunities (too many to list). Without SBT I would most likely still be a successful writer but it would have been infinitely harder journey.

I decided to do the Kilt Walk to raise money for Scottish Book because I wanted to give something back, because I understand the importance of the work they are doing.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story and please consider sponsoring me.

Ely

P.S. You can read more about me and my work here:

https://www.elypercy.com and here: https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2025/06/duck-feet-by-ely-percy/

P.P.S. Additionally, I have pledged to write a new short story that I will donate to Scottish Book Trust IF (and only IF) I make my £1000 target