One of the key activities of  the Off Sick Project was the support it provided to participants who wished to undertake a piece of writing about illness but had little or no experience of doing so.

Across a period of a few months the Off Sick team held a series of creative workshops to give participants a starting point from which to go on and write in their own ways. The workshops were held at various locations, and were most often taken to participants rather than having the participants come to the Project’s offices at the University of Glamorgan. Workshops took place in the homes of participants, at various hospital sites around Cardiff, and at the offices and spaces of charitable and other organisations whose work was in the field of healthcare.

The workshops themselves introduced participants to some basic writing tools which are common in the teaching of creative writing in Higher Education. The Off Sick Team owe thanks in particular to the creative writing lecturers at the University of Glamorgan for providing invaluable advice. During the workshops participants were given the opportunity to access their imaginative faculties via writing, images, and sounds.

Some of the narratives submitted were begun at these workshops, and some were helped by the creative writing processes which the workshops helped to introduce.

Off Sick at Lifestories

Sat 20th Nov 2010

St Fagans National History Museum