MEET THE TEAM
Creative Collaborators
Our Creative Collaborators are individual artists, theatre & puppet makers, musicians, singer/song writers, freelance content creators and project participants who join our community or research and development projects to support our work while also developing their own skills and experience. Sometimes they join us as volunteers or as participants for specific projects, and other times they just make a connection with what we do and become a part of our extended creative family.
We recently asked a few creative collaborators from our current project Broken:Live to share a bit about themselves for this new feature on our website, and we hope to keep adding more mini profiles soon!
Carrie Berry
Norfolk, UK
" I joined Broken Live to rediscover my creativity while meeting and working with others who understand the limitations and constraints ME brings. ME can be so contradictory in finding your creativity but then being restricted in expressing it, which is why it's so beneficial not to have any deadlines. I have found enjoyment and even a fragment of hope with Broken Live, as I have been able to contribute creatively and partake in discussions. I hope it will lead to opportunities for further work personally and possibly professionally."
Bill Clayton
York, UK
"...Such a great group...my only input so far would be the poems I've done on ME which others have found useful to help get the reality of the illness over to family and friends. I suppose the following one here sort of says it all! If I have a creative 'skill set', it's that I like to 'word doodle' and have written a number of things, both about ME as I see it, plus other stuff. I aim to turn my energies to some sort of script for the Broken:Live group soon, after being inspired by our conversations about things we wish our GP's could understand better. I'm no expert so I expect it to be pretty rough at the edges, but it will be great to have Jon, Clare and the Broken Puppet team turn it into something worthy of a stage!"
I run a support group for people with M.E in the York area, and invite anyone interested or in need of further information and support to visit us: www.York-ME-Community.org
M.E. and ME
by Bill Clayton
I ran, I swam, it’s who I am
I laughed, had fun, enjoyed the sun.
I was doing such when this begun.
Felt a chill on a good warm day
Aches and pains that won’t go away
Like the flu, I heard it said
But arms and legs are made of lead.
Can’t remember what I was about to say
Simple words have gone astray
Can’t make a choice between two simple things
Someone else is pulling my strings.
I try to read, but it only drains
Focussing harder, just scrambles my brains
The dark clouds descend, lead to despair
The weight of three men sinks into my chair
No outward sign to give a clue
No bandage, mark, no black and blue
Strange, it seems I always look well
Look from this side, then you could tell
Remove the mask for a day to see
The evil face of this beast called M.E.
Like a thief in the night it takes away
Your hope, your strength, your friends
Your likes, your loves your chance to play
And never makes amends
All we want is to be believed
And trusted when we say
Hey GP, can’t you see
We didn’t ask to be this way
This is real, a real big deal
As big as the ‘popular’ ills
It needs to be taught, given some thought
Not just a bundle of pills
We don’t have a choice, we need a real voice
Give us some hope TODAY
So don’t be doubting, we’re gonna keep shouting
We’re just not going away.
