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!