MS sufferer promotes other writers

Nov 20 2008 By Jack Abell

A Chalfont St Peter author has produced her second edition of short stories written by people suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Rachel Evans, of Gravel Hill, compiled the first volume of MS Talent in November last year and the result was such a success that she has just produced another volume.

She suffers from MS herself and decided that a collection of short stories by authors with MS would be a good way of raising money and awareness about the illness.

The first volume received the coveted David St John Thomas Trust Community Cup for publishing, and this resulted in the trust giving a donation to the MS Society.

The latest edition features 48 stories from a variety of different authors, all of whom suffer from some sort of multiple sclerosis.

A number of the stories deal with what it is like to suffer from the neurological illness, or to be close to someone who has it.

Rachel Evans, of Gravel Hill, said: "We decided to do another one because of the success of the last one. We had some great feedback about it and it seemed like a good idea to do another book and raise even more money for charity.

"I first had the idea of raising funds in this way when I met my co-editor John Lake on an internet chat room for people with MS. We were talking about how difficult it is to get items published so we put our heads together and decided to publish our own book. The result was the first volume of MS Talent."

All funds received by Rachel from sales of the book go to UK charities for people with MS, and it is available to buy on the Amazon website, as well as in the Chalfont Bookshop in Market Place, Chalfont St Peter.