Why Cancer Counselling

Cancer counselling charity We Hear You (WHY) is delighted to announce the results of its spring short story competition.

The competition judges, children’s author Michelle Robinson and Tina Gaisford-Waller of Frome’s Hunting Raven Books, chose the winning stories from the 75 entries received.

Michelle said:

“Tina and I loved reading all the entries to the WHY Short Story competition. What an amazing array of talent and imagination. All of the young authors should feel very proud of themselves. We both hope they carry on writing and sharing more stories. There’s always room on the shelves for new adventures!”

Abby, age eight, was a winner in the 5 to 9 years category with her story ‘The Not So Reluctant Dragon’. The judges praised her effortless storytelling, well drawn characters and impressive dialogue. 11-year-old Toby won for his story ‘Dan Who Could Tell the Future’…but could he? The judges praised the fun and mischief in Toby’s story, that ‘crackled with humour’.

Three-year-old Alfred was technically too young to enter, but his big sister was entering and he didn’t want to be left out. The judges were so charmed by Alfred’s story ‘The Big Bad Wolf’, dictated to his mum Alex, they decided to award him a prize too!

WHY’s director Melissa Hillier said ‘The short story competition has been such a lovely, positive distraction from everything that is going on – we hope you enjoyed writing your stories as much as we enjoyed reading them. Special thanks to our ‘resident experts’ Michelle and Tina for giving up their time to judge the competition and to Winstone’s for sponsoring the prizes. And thanks also due to all the parents who typed, scanned and sent in the stories and those who made a donation. We’re still running a full service at We Hear You, albeit via telephone and online, and we’re also offering a telephone support service for people affected by Covid-19, despite a huge reduction in fundraising income, so every donation makes such a difference. If you’d like to refer yourself for support, please call us on 01373 455255 or email info@wehearyou.org.uk.”