Today on my usual reading of fellow writers' blogs, I came across Nick Wilford's latest post. Nick is a great guy, who though I don't know very well, is always friendly, supportive and encouraging.
In Nick's post, he was talking about his stepson Andrew's struggle with finding a collage that caters to his cerebral palsy, and how in his home country of Scotland, their only option for college for Andrew is a place that hasn't got resources that would really help him grow and develop. That's led them to look further afield, into England, but as the college system isn't free like it is in Scotland, that brings a whole new set of problems.
For the full details behind Nick and Andrew's story, you can read Nick's full post here.
Goodness knows raising kids is hard enough. Sometimes I have trouble raising my two boys. My own stepbrother, Robert, has Autism and even though his mom and my dad have only been together for a couple of years, I've seen first hand the hardships they've faced.
This is why I'm signing up for Nick's Overcoming Adversity blogfest - the aim of which is for participants to write a 500 word piece (fiction, personal experience or poem) about Overcoming Adversity, which Nick will then turn into an Anthology, the proceeds of which are going to Andrew's college fun. But not only that, I wanted to take the time to spread the word about this blogfest, and Nick's campaign. Over on Nick's blog, there's also a petition you can sign to get the Scottish Government to build a specialist further education college in Scotland and a donate button if you'd like to contribute to Andrew's college fun.
I think this is a great cause, and one that everyone should at least read up on.
