I can’t believe we have done it – fully funded in just under two weeks – truly amazing! Thank you to everyone who has come along for the ride – thanks to you A Mighty Boy is going to be published and in the shops…..!

It is a strange feeling. My eldest son, Oscar, asked me why I wasn’t celebrating last night after we hit the 100% mark and the page lit up red. I tried to explain that although it is fantastic news, it is also bittersweet. It feels somehow wrong to celebrate something so tied up with Silas’s death although I know Silas himself would be whooping from the rooftops. Also, I know the hard work has to start now, the editing, the cutting and the general beating of the book into the best possible shape before publication and for me that means stepping back in time and revisiting emotions in their full, unadulterated intensity. So a deep breath is required…..

Meanwhile, I have spent this morning being interviewed and flimed by our local Kent Messenger reporter for the paper and their multi-media outlets. She asked me whether I hoped the book would offer “comfort” to others going through a similar experience. I blanched at the term “comfort” – the book is far from a comfortable read but what I hope is that it helps others feel less alone. Grief is incredibly isolating and there is no way of making things better and offering “comfort” in the conventional sense but you can help give people strength for the journey by simply walking beside them – letting them know that they are not the first to tread this path and won’t be the last. Grief makes madmen of us all and it is reassuring to know this is normal when you are lost in the thick of it. A friend, whose daughter died tragically a year after Silas, has said to me. “Sometimes knowing you are a few steps further down the line and still going gives me the strength to get out of bed on those days that I just want to stay curled up in a tight ball.” This is what I hope to offer.

So thank you to you all. Your support has been incredible and means so much, in so many ways. Thank you for walking beside me….