From homeless at 18, to a published author

Latest News, PR

I first met Courteney Cannan when she was 16 and a student at Fearns Community Sports College, she shaved her hair for charity, who would know our paths would cross and I would be interviewing her again. This time, it was for Rossendale-based homeless charity M3...

Blog 10 – six years post TT

Latest News, Thyroid Blog

Wow, really? Like, has it really been nearly six years since I had my thyroid removed? It is hard to believe how quickly time flies and it is safe to say my life really has changed radically and for the better in so many ways. 2019 – I got divorced and bought a cute...

Potty about Flowerpots

Latest News, PR

This is one of the more unusual jobs I am tasked with… promoting Bacup Flowerpot Festival. The Festival is organised by Bacup Pride and runs from July to September all across Bacup with loads of people, businesses, shops and organisations making Flowerpot...

Lockdown blog… my musings are back again

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SINCE its inception in 2012, then as Veterans In Action, I have been the press officer for Veterans In Communities. With a D-Day veteran Great Uncle and a father who served from being a boy soldier at 14 and was then in REME until 1961, I qualify as veterans’ family,...

Coming Home – a short story by Catherine Smyth

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The smooth, shiny pebble left my hand at a rapid speed. It twirled and spun through the air as it made its way towards the calm water, which was a perfect mirror reflecting the stunning hills and the azure blue sky, but not for long. One, two, three I counted each...

Same story – tweaked for maximum coverage

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Often I will get asked to write a story for a client and I soon realise that, with a few tweaks, that story can be made press ready for use by media in a different location. At no extra charge. In recent weeks this has happened twice – firstly for regular ad hoc...

Weirdo Mosher Freak – new version 10 years on

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It is 13 years since the tragic and senseless murder of Sophie Lancaster; and 10 years since I wrote the first edition of Weirdo Mosher Freak. In 2016, I was approached by RJ Parker who had read my book and offered to rebrand, recover and relaunch – it became...

The hidden Covid patients

Freelance Stories, Latest News

When a good friend was interviewed on the radio about creating a film to raise awareness of Long Covid I was shocked to hear her voice. It was weak, fragile, she was struggling to talk and to string her words together. This was not the person I knew. Caroline is an...

BLOG poem

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  Lockdown life Day after day, there’s more hills to climb, Mile after mile, but I’ve got the time. While some locked away, I opened the doors And went for a ramble over the moors.   Camera in hand, glancing around Listening carefully to every sound. The...

Blog: Lockdown easing… really?

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March, April, May….and so it goes on I have avoided being political in my blogs, I have stayed away from venting concerns, anger and dismay, I have tried to use these ramblings to steer some sort of steady path by remaining positive, however… (Spoiler skip to...

BLOG: The Sun Has Got His Hat On

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Another three weeks of lockdown After what can only be described as a week from hell, it is a huge ‘Hello sunny Sunday’ from me. My last blog was on April 10th, it feels like it was yesterday but I have lost days from this week as unfortunately I got floored by what I...

BLOG: From Groundhog to Mad Dog

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18 days in Wow – really? Have I been shackled to this house for 18 days? Time flies or not when you are doing very little in the way of work…Ok, for those of you who don’t know me, that just well never happens; not for me anyway. I make things to do, I conjure...

BLOG: Groundhog Day… er what day is it again?

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First week Whoa. What just happened to the world we all know? To be honest, that is how this week has made me feel. I hit the wall on Saturday morning, for many years I have been using that expression – usually when writing about marathon runners or people who have...

Blog: Shopping, litter and WORK!

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Day 3 and 4 How much rubbish can people drop? That certainly was the question I found myself asking on Thursday as I decided to make my daily walk useful; lone ranger litter picking for Bacup Pride. Two hours of hard work and an area off New Line looked a heck of a...

BLOG: A New Kind Of Normal

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Writing… it’s what I do… Day 1 As usual, I woke up ridiculously early, about 4am, so caught up on a drama I had missed and then watched a scandalous documentary on air pollution that caused shocking deformities in babies, before I managed to drift...