A fitting way to begin - in memory of Ken

A couple of months ago, I was deeply saddened to learn that a much loved and respected writer Mr Ken Johnstone a member of my primary review writing site http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/ had lost his battle against cancer.

I got in touch with his widow Dolores over the weekend and she very kindly has given me her consent to announce that I will be donating the next £50 of my dooyoo review earnings to the Cancer Clinical Research trust in Ireland.

The following link to Ken's profile has the details of the charity, as well as the very moving and poignant last few entries he made.

http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/member/kenjohn/



~~~~Make a difference - my thinking ~~~~


Since I started out writing online, I've always had the dream of building up a sufficient stream of earnings from this and other review sites and online publishing places to be able to walk away once and for all from my IT career entanglement.

But bizarrely my recent health scare has actually made me more inclined to stick around in the day job, with of course the proviso of making much needed changes in my approach to the work and the kind of assignments I'm prepared to accept going forwards.

So rather than trying to scrape a living from freelancing, which would almost inevitably mean signing up to poorly paid , potentially mind numbing assignments just to pay the bills I've decided that there is a way to get the most out of both worlds.

In the end, what I love the really most from this and other sites is the feedback you get for your efforts.
Add to that the opportunity to really make a difference with the money earned, then it's a perfect recipe for writing about what I really believe in

I used to think how great it would be to properly make it as a writer and then be in a position to give something back and support good causes.

You know what, I'm already fortunate enough to be in a secure and well paid job, and I'm already lucky enough to be able to write what I want, every single day of my life. So why not start now.

What the Dickens!

I'd like to think of this as my "Christmas carol" moment.

I feverishly leap out of the bed on Christmas morning, thrust open the window and shout down to the little lad below- Hey you there - here's £50 go and buy the biggest turkey you can find....

Hmm maybe not quite....

Anyway you look at it, making a commitment like this, finally finding a way to write and do something you truly believe in feels amazing.

Please get involved

I would dearly love to hear from any of you out there who have causes that are really close to your heart that I can highlight and hopefully raise funds for.

What I'm really hoping is that in doing this it may encourage one or two other people to follow suit and commit to donating some or all of their earnings.

To be honest I've never been much of a revolutionary, but this is one idea that I absolutely 100% believe in.

My late Mum was a fantastic fundraiser herself, and it's her determination and her will that lives on in me.


Please do get in touch with your ideas and suggestions for worthy causes, I'm particularly interested in supporting smaller groups that don't get a lot of publicity.

If you would like to take a look at the website directly it's at http://http://www.ccrt.ie/

I am deeply honoured to be able to begin this campaign by paying tribute to such a much loved and missed contributor to the online writing community.