Hello and thank you for dropping by.

This November, I will be fundraising for a charity about as close to my heart as you can get. If you know me, then you’ll know that since 2014, I’ve been working closely with Shooting Fish Theatre Company to deliver the Gainsborough Literacy Project each year. Even Covid-19 couldn’t stop us; in fact, it just made us double down and take a different approach, reworking an almost-finished stage play (about the Holocaust) into a powerful audio drama. The dreaded virus even worked its way into a short, animated film we produced that same year about Engineering in Grantham, 'An Exploded View'. Since 2014, the Literacy Project alone has opened the door to ten major productions, all developed with young people, and nine curtain-raiser-shows, all of which featured the young people themselves. Another project begins this November and will be staged at Trinity Arts Centre in May 2025. Please consider yourself invited.

But that’s just one project. Alongside it can be placed a whole range of similar projects, in Lincolnshire and Bristol (and beyond) all developed with hard-to-reach young people and other communities. They range from podcasts and radio plays to lantern-building workshops and firework extravaganzas.

Shooting Fish Theatre Company is dedicated to, and passionate about, using theatre for social benefit; as an educational tool, to build community cohesion, develop life skills, and to increase enjoyment and well-being amongst its participants. Since being established in 2002, the company has strived hard to enable empowerment by encouraging people to tell relevant stories, make their voices heard, and once heard, allow them the satisfaction of knowing they’ve been listened to.

The challenge set before me now is to engage in 30 minutes of creative activity for 30 days across the whole of November – and documenting it – occasionally stepping out of my comfort zone, but also doing some activities within it. Therefore, I will be trying new things – piano and guitar, for example – and things I haven’t attempted since school, painting, sketching; I’ll try my arm at a poem, do a weekly photography walk, and work on a screenplay. I might even dust off the vocal chords and do some acting. 30 minutes each day. No less. Only some of this will be comfortable to do, but knowing I have your support will help enormously.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So, it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.