Want Me To Write Something For You?

Dear readers,

I'm very sorry not to have written much recently, or even not so recently. On the grounds that more content of dubious quality is better than no content (I trust you guys to be discerning) I'm going to try and dash off more, less in-depth stuff in future. Might work, might not. Let's see.

Begging

Anyway, this is a shameless pimp for a project I'm involved with on Friday, 23rd September. Coinciding with the annual Macmillan Cancer Support charity coffee morning, I'll be participating in a sponsored write. If you donate to Macmillan on our Just Giving page, I'll take your writing request. Any writing request. And post it up on our blog, Words Vs. Cancer. If I don't have time on the day to complete everything (because I'm also volunteering at the Natural History Museum's Science Uncovered pimping Bionic Glasses) I'll work until it is done. Because having cancer is bad enough without day to day problems as well.

How To Do It

Go to the Coffeewrite JustGiving page, donate an amount, and specify what you want in the comments. You can give style, topic, format, and word count. So if you have a burning need for:

• A loving poem addressed to Mr Blobby
• A vitriolic rant against black holes
• Spectroscopy explained for 5 year olds
• A haiku about quantum field theory

or similar, just ask. I'll write it and put it on Words Vs Cancer. Some of our other writers are doing this too — take your pick of us! As a guide, most magazines pay between 6p and 50p a word. Be generous, it's for a good cause.

Why Macmillan?

Macmillan Cancer support provide practical, medical and financial support for people with cancer. 1 in 3 people get cancer and as well as the health effects and risk of death that immediately come to mind, it brings more mundane problems. Cancer sufferers often have financial problems because their illness stops them working — and their bills are greater as they have to stay home. They need lifts, benefits advice, and counselling for themselves and loved ones. Cancer doesn't just hit the body.

I have some personal experience of this illness — my dad had terminal bowel cancer when I was a kid. I don't claim to be an expert, but I know what I'm talking about when I say cancer is more than tumours.

I'd really appreciate any money you could spare, and will make sure you get something back — from me or my fellow writers. Watch out for us.