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BMP Project Update 2 – Call For SubmissionsMar 18 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line A further update on the BMP Project in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief and some info on what Macmillan Nurses do.
BMP Project Update 2 – Call For Submissions If you’re reading this and don’t know what the BMP Project is, you’d better read this first That’s right folks, I’m now ready to receive your submissions for inclusion on the website (which I’m still working on). Carl has kindly donated some ad-free webspace, so even if nothing else comes of it this project has done something truly amazing – it’s shown that Carl can actually be nice when he tries. (Okay, okay, I admit it – I like Carl, he’s a good bloke. I can’t believe I just said that…) Why Macmillan? You may be wondering why I want to encourage people to donate to Macmillan Cancer Relief instead of a Cancer Research charity. Well, in my work at the time of writing this, I have worked for Surgeons and Radiologist who are acknowledged world leaders in the field of bone tumour diagnosis and treatment, Doctors and Nurses of various levels, as well as the Macmillan Nurses. What struck me most was the way that Macmillan Nurses deal with the way it affects peoples lives, not just their bodies. Apart from the medical side, cancer affects people’s finances, confidence, mental stability, self-image, mood, family relationships, ability to plan for the future, ability to study or do their job, ability to look after their children, and much more. These are the things that are addressed by Macmillan – the things we often don’t think about when we hear that someone had cancer. Though primarily helping the patients, they also support the patient’s family and friends, both emotionally and practically. For instance, when people have chemotherapy, they usually lose a lot of weight. Obviously this means their existing clothes no longer fit them properly. Macmillan raise funds for new clothes, not only because of practical considerations, but also because the patient’s self-image often plummets at this time. Hair loss is also pretty much inevitable, so help to obtain a proper wig is given. Many need help with filling out application forms for State Benefits. People who can no longer manage to go to University can continue studying with the help of a laptop. Help from Social Services often has to be arranged. Referrals to Occupational Therapy are made to make sure any new household appliances (such as support bars to help people get out of the bath, stairlifts, etc) can be provided. Counselling may be needed by the patient or their family to cope with the situation. The point I’m trying to make is, when we hear about cancer, we don’t often think about these things – and these people need help now, and for some of them no cure will be found in their lifetime, no matter how much money and effort is poured into research. Working with the Macmillan Nurses has really opened my eyes to a whole new side of patient care in this regards, and that’s why I want to do something to help. Call for Submission There are 3 areas I’m now looking for submissions in. The idea of the site is that it will provide free ebooks and computer games, but each one will contain a message asking the reader / player to make a donation to Macmillan (through the BMP Project site) if they enjoy reading / playing what they’ve downloaded. The only reason for asking people to donate through the site is to see how many people are sent to the Macmillan Donate page by the project – unfortunately there is no way to track the actual amount of money being donated unless it came to me first and then I sent it on, which I don’t want to do as I feel it is asking too much trust from people who don’t know me. Anyway the important thing is that people are encouraged to donate, how much is not really important. I just want to make it plain right now that absolutley nothing on the site will create any money for myself or anyone else involved in the project – everything that appears on the site will have been given completely voluntarily and with no other motive that the project helps to raise money and awareness for Macmillan. And that’s all there is to it (apart from trying to find a proper publisher for the BMP book) – I don’t believe in trying to blackmail people into donating money or trying to make them feel guilty with images of ill or dying people, so if anyone downloads from the site and never donates, that’s completely their business. Ebooks - these don’t have to be related to cancer in any way, but I want “family-friendly” stuff (and yes, if you’ve read the last post about John’s poems he wrote on MST, that idea’s been scrapped – though if you’re interested it will be published as a chapbook sometime) – cancer affects young and old alike, and anyway I don’t want the site to have anything that might be offensive to people. Please send me the word file if you have something (in terms of a complete ebook), you can include graphics but nothing over 2mb in total file size – I will add the message about how to donate at the start and end of the book, PDF, and ZIP it. Computer Games - just let me know about these, again they should not be too gory etc and something that anyone can play (if they’re already available as freeware elsewhere that’s fine), when the time comes I’ll email you the text needed to the Readme and intro screen of the game. Then if you can either email me the game or the URL if you’ve already got a reliable download location. The BMP Ebook - the idea for this is as a shorter version of the BMP Book that will hopefully be published sometime in the future. Quite a few people have already indicated that they will write something for this. Chapter headings are: ”Introduction”, “About Macmillan”, “When it happens to your loved ones”, “When it happens to you”, “When it’s untreatable”, “When the unthinkable happens”. I think they’re pretty much self-explanatory. Submissions can be prose or, if appropriate, poetry. The tone should be realistic but upbeat, with the emphasis more on how people cope than what they have to cope with. In the case of the last chapter, try to make it more a celebration of someone’s life than focusing on the tragedy of their death. If you can’t send Word files (standard default formatting), RTF of TXT files are okay. I plan to do as little editing as possible because the pieces written are about how the writer feels, not me. If anyone has any questions about this please feel free to email me. All submissions / queries should be sent to poetofthecentury@aol.com. There is no deadline date as I want to be able to continue adding free downloads after the initial site launch – which I plan to be on 5th July 2004, though this may change. (The existing website is temporary.) When I launch it I will be asking for reciprocal links, which many have already promised. (Before you even knew they’d be reciprocal – I’m going to have sections on the authors and supporters of the project with links to your website / profile pages.) To coincide with the website launch I’m going to host a write-off, but I’m not quite sure what format this should take – if you have any ideas please leave a comment! It looks like the BMP Project is going to be a real success, and that’s largely due to the support I’m receiving from the community here at epinions. THANK YOU  |
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