A letter from
me to you
Cancer is perhaps one of the hardest things that a person can go through, and without the support of friends and family, the burden of the illness is made all the worse. But thanks to hundreds of letters and a very special friendship, there’s now a charity bringing comfort to those undergoing treatment – and using the power of the written word, we can all get involved
Photography | Top right: Peter Clark
Writing | Kathryn Wheeler
W
hen Brian Greenley was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010, he and Alison Hitchcock were simply acquaintances. “I didn’t know him very well at all, and I think I just felt very awkward when he told me,” Alison explains. “I didn’t know what to say because he wasn’t a close friend, so I wasn’t going to be going round to see him, because I didn’t really know him. So I made a bizarre offer…” Alison began writing letters to Brian throughout his treatment, sitting down every other week to fill him in on the things she’d seen. In moments of huge emotional and physical strain, Alison’s letters offered Brian an escape. What began as a heartwarming story of friendship and
compassion, spiralled into From Me to You – a charity that encourages people to write letters to loved ones and strangers with cancer. So how did it happen? We spoke to Alison to find out.
Putting pen to paper
Following her offer, and with no real experience in letter writing, Alison began penning regular letters to Brian. “My aim was to make him laugh,” says Alison. “I used to write about things I would see, or that would happen to me, and then I would always put a bit of a comedy slant on them. I never used to write about his cancer because I didn’t know anything, and I didn’t feel like I knew him well enough to be asking too much.” Alison’s letters were a welcome distraction, opening up the rest of the world to Brian at a time >>>
Brian and Alison’s story began in 2010
er of letters overed the pow Alison soon disc
December 2019 • happiful.com • 55
