Ten years ago I did possibly the bravest thing I will ever do in my life. It started with a fridge.

It’s a long story that I wrote a separate blog about, but with a huge amount of support from an American colleague I’d never met, who became a friend, we raised £7000 and separately went to Tacloban to stay with her Filipino family and use the money to help support people rebuilding their lives after typhoon Yolanda, which had killed thousands of people.

It was brave because I didn’t like travelling alone, I didn’t like eating new things, I wasn’t great at meeting new people, I didn’t like staying with people I didn’t know and I had very little self confidence. It wasn’t a terribly well thought out plan.

But it was life changing.

And this morning I woke up to am email from a Filipino writer living in New York who was asking if he could talk to me about one of my experiences there for some writing he is doing. He linked to the specific post I’d written and I clicked on it to remind myself. And I was back there.

I can’t believe I did that trip. But my bravery was nothing in comparison to that of Sister Helen and Sister Aurea, who the writer has contacted me about.

If Sister Helen gives her permission, I will speak to him as her story is one I think should be heard far and wide forever. For now though, I’ll share with you what she gave me permission to write back then, because some days feel dark. And then you get to meet or even just hear about someone who is actual light, and that can restore faith in something.

I hope this does for you (you might want a tissue, though) 🙂