The write medicine

Writing has got me through some tough times.

Over the last three years, I've had a stroke; then discovered I had a genetic heart condition; then had open heart surgery just in time to replace one valve, repair another, and have a bypass.

I'm told it was the biggest heart operation they'd done at the hospital for a long time. It took me an age to get my strength back.

Image shows three people in white uniform pushing a bed along a hospital corridor.

I was housebound for a while, so my desk chair, laptop and I became close friends. But thanks to the miracle workers at the NHS in England, I'm active again now, enjoying life, and not letting news headlines affect me too much!

I've never forgotten the therapeutic, stress-relieving effect that writing had, and continues to have, on me. It's about on the same level as going for a walk by the sea, except that when I'm writing, my mind doesn't wander so much.

I know many people who suffer mental or physical illness, and if you are one of them, I strongly recommend picking up a pen or opening up the computer, and starting to write down whatever is in your head.

You may not write a best seller - I never have - but you will feel better, and anyone who writes is my number one anyway.

So take the write medicine!