Going away this summer? Don’t forget a postcard for Josh.

READ THIS! DO THIS! (please) 😉

UPDATE: Please note: This is genuine and not a hoax. Promise. 
Josh is the nephew of a friend of a schoolmate of mine. 

Bored of signing online petitions that never seem to make difference? Tired of your hashtags on social media repeatedly going unnoticed by the powers that be? Slacktivism just isn’t what it used to be, is it?

And yes, you want to be the someone who makes things happen, but you’re just not one of those people that picks up a placard and stands outside parliament angrily shouting stuff about fracking or Palestine.

It’s time to up your game, but baby steps, baby steps…

I’m here to help. So, here’s a way that you can make a difference without holding a stick or being assaulted by the local police force. It’s as easy as sending a postcard. Sure, it’s a bit more effort than hitting shift-3 just to “raise awareness”, but this is different, because bizarrely, what you are doing will actually make a difference.

I know. Crazy, isn’t it?

Here’s the story:

A Hixon family are appealing for summer travelers to help their poorly 7 yr old son.
Josh, who is undergoing treatment for Leukaemia was set a school summer project of writing a diary about the activities and places he went to during the holidays. However, due to the nature of his illness he is unable to travel so has set about a project of his own, collecting postcards sent to him from others on their travels.

Josh’s treatment has left him neutropenic – basically he has no immune system at the moment and so he’s very prone to infections. He can’t go out and about like you or I are able to. So yes, a quick postcard to Josh from your holiday destination – or, in fact, any destination – will be gratefully received by Josh and would put a smile on his face. And thus, you could easily imagine that 2, or 5, or 10, or 100 postcards would have an even greater effect.

jj

I know what you’re thinking: you’re thinking that by the time you read this, someone else will probably have already sent one from Cape Town or Joburg (do they have postcards in Joburg?) or Durban or wherever you are right now, so there’s no point in you doing it. But actually, I don’t think that matters one little bit. Who cares if ten postcards from Cape Town drop through Josh’s letterbox one morning? That’s ten postcards for him and it’s ten people who have made the effort to tell him that they’re thinking about him. These things are hugely important when you are seven and not very well.

I want this to go big – I want Josh inundated with postcards from South Africa and you guys have an excellent record in this regard: remember the amazing response when I asked you to find a Rabbit 4 Nic? And that was an extremely rare and elusive toy bunny – this is just a postcard!
I know that we can do it again.

Use the buttons below to RT this post on twitter and share it on Facebook.
Tell your friends, if you have any, and tell them to tell their friends too.

Josh’s address for your postcards:

Joshua Johns,
2 Swansmoor Drive,
Hixon,
Staffordshire
ST18 0FP
United Kingdom

And they’ve set up a Facebook page so you can follow their progress.

Now, get to it!

Sing ‘it

Incoming from Chrizane, who – as part of the You Magazine team – helped us out with the Rabbits For Nic appeal last year. Chrizane is now with Litnet and they are running a competition with Sanlam and MTV called Sing ‘it.

Sanlam and LitNet have just launched the third Sing ‘it lyric-writing competition, which invites South Africans aged 18 years and older with a passion for songwriting to submit their lyrics in a bid to win R50 000! And on top of that, lyricists will get the opportunity to see their lyrics turned into a song and music video that will be launched exclusively on MTV.

And they’ve got some amazing local artists involved as well: the acclaimed Blackbyrd, acapella specialists The Soil – freshly back from the Edinburgh Fringe, South Africa’s “Prince of Rap” AKA and Potch’s Christian Rockers Staatligkinders.

Here’s the plan: you write some lyrics (entries close 30th September), each band/artist will choose their favourite lyric from the pool of submissions then compose and record a song from it.
Then, the most popular of those songs will win the lyricist R50,000, plus a chance to star in the video.

And why? Litnet editor Etienne van Heerden:

We want to bring out the best in South African writers and that is why we dedicate our time to promoting lyric writing as a legitimate art form.

Anything that assists with pushing people to be creative and promotes literacy is good by me. Chrizane even suggested that I should enter, but I think I should probably stick to science. Safety first, hey?

More details on Sing ‘it via their Facebook page (22,000 likes, ne?) or on singit.co.za.

Latest on Nic

It’s been a while since I updated you on what has been going on with Nic Henshilwood of #rabbit4nic fame.
There’s good reason for this. There  have been some complications with Nic’s condition and they have affected his treatment timetable.

Nic was meant to have started his radiated iodine therapy on Monday, but there has been a delay and a change of plan, as his Dad describes:

NICOLAS UPDATE: The Radiated Iodine scan was postponed after the diagnostic scan last Thursday. There are still some Lymph nodes that are problematic and the Oncologists have advised that surgery is the best way forward.
We had a meeting with the ENT Prof on Tuesday. It looks like surgery will be scheduled for late next week!
Nic was a bit anxious at first but is now showing his true brave self!!

When he does go in for his surgery, Nic will obviously have several bunnies to take in with him, thanks to those kind donors across SA.

My inbox is regularly full of requests for news on Nic, so I’ll do my best to keep you updated on here. You can also subscribe by RSS, on Facebook or by email (see the bottom of the sidebar), so you don’t miss a thing.

They keep coming…

That’s Keean’s rabbit (freshly in from Bloemfontein) on the left and, on the right, a bunny from sisters Kristen and Lize in PE.

And here’s Keean explaining to his local radio station exactly why he has decided to send his rabbit down to Nic in Cape Town (and winning big brownie points at school).

Keean on OFM

Awesome.

Many thanks to Tim at OFM for permission to use the audio clip.