10 Aug 2022
Families affected by motor neurone disease (MND) are being given free access to personalise and record beautifully illustrated digital stories, poems or greetings cards thanks to an innovative partnership between the MND Association and Featherbed Tales.
Families affected by motor neurone disease (MND) are being given free access to personalise and record beautifully illustrated digital stories, poems or greetings cards thanks to an innovative partnership between the MND Association and Featherbed Tales.
This service is in addition to our catalogue of specialist resources and services for children and young people, which include the MND Buddies website, memory boxes, information guides and accelerated access to free counselling.
Featherbed Tales is an online platform which allows you to create memories to keep forever or share a story for those who can’t always be together. The recording can be done individually or together as a family, taking turns to read, make sound effects or adding personal additions.
Laura Willix, Children and Young People’s Service Development Manager at the Association, said:
“An MND diagnosis can be devastating for the whole family. The aim of our children and young people’s programme is to listen and respond to their needs and do everything we can to meet them. “Being able to physically hear someone’s voice when they are no longer with us is so powerful. Featherbed Tales allows families affected by MND to come together and record special stories to keep forever. Supporting families to do this together reinforces connections and creates beautiful outcomes. “Although it can be hard for a family facing the loss of a loved one to record a story, once they have them, the emotional comfort they provide for children can be indescribable. “I have no recorded voice of my dad from before he passed away, so to have something as sacred as this would have been incredible. “I am so proud of this project. I hope that all of our families take up the offer and record one of these precious stories or poems while they are still able.”
Caroline England, writer and founder of Featherbed Tales, was inspired to support people with MND in this way after seeing Rob Burrow MBE, former Leeds Rhinos Rugby player and MND Association patron, and his family share their experience with the disease so publicly.
Caroline said:
“Stories have the power to transport us to a truly magical world. Combining this with the voices of those we know and love can provide huge comfort and reassurance as well as vividly connecting us when we can’t be together. Working with the Motor Neurone Disease Association is a perfect fit for us and our aim of supporting communities, enabling families to continue to share story times even when a loved one can no longer speak. We would love to see families creating story times and forever memories with Featherbed Tales.”
To find out more and for free access to record stories on Featherbed Tales, please email Laura Willix at cyp@mndassociation.org