From The Heart

This book gives voice to the voiceless, allowing those caring for loved ones with mental illnesses and sufferers themselves to tell their own often painful but always moving stories. In bringing together this collection, Edna Hunneysett presents us with stories and poems which would otherwise have remained untold, unshared and unacknowledged. It also presents us with challenges which we as individuals and communities, especially Christian communities, need to address. What does it mean to be Christian? Indeed, what does it mean to be human and to care for our fellow human beings? In her earlier works Edna Hunneysett bravely described her painful and at times desperate experiences caring for a teenage daughter who suffered with severe mental illness and her own trials and tribulations in finding spiritual support through these ordeals. From these experiences Edna Hunneysett established and guided a pastoral care group for those caring for someone with mental illness, and later a group for sufferers themselves. This book tells their stories. It is a book of hope and empowerment. Though rooted in the Catholic world, this book is for everyone for, as one contributor puts it, 'mental illness does not know denominational divisions'. Brian Dowd Editor, Middlesbrough Diocesan Catholic 'Voice'