Story Worth Telling

[Guest guest]

Hi – Permission to repost

Story Worth Telling

Story Worth Telling is the title of a letter to the Pontefract and

Castleford Express when Seabiscuit was doing the rounds and was about to

been shown at our local cinema. It had received much publicity on radio.

Dismayed that the main groups had yet again failed to cash in on such an

event, possibly through their high profile celebs who could have gained much

‘street cred’ and made it look as though they were bothered, but no another

chance went by.

I was determined that this would not be so in Castleford so the following

letter was written and published, now that Seabiscuit is being shown on TV I

think time for a republish, and once more a chance to thing about another

chance lost. It has been edited as I was with the other Castleford Group at

the time, a couple of years before I left and founded MERSC:

Seabiscuit is currently being shown at cinemas nationwide, hailed as a

wonderfully uplifting film from a great book. Indeed it is, the story of a

horse, as damaged and persistent as the jockey who was to ride him. Two

rejects, one too tall to be a jockey, one two small to be a winner, so they

thought. How wrong they were

But has anyone given a thought to the person behind the book and how it

identifies with them? Hilenbrand, a woman with a love of horses from

an early age and seabiscuit is an allegory of her struggle.

fell ill aged 19, a mystery illness, doctor after doctor failing to

recognise and admit she was seriously ill, plunging to the depths of

despair. She was finally diagnosed with ME. Then the struggle began – the

struggle to have some form of a life.

came across the story of Seabiscuit and a goal was made – a goal that

would take four years to reach. Four years of which she was mostly confined

to bed, using initiative she would write in bed, a friend having adapted a

keyboard for her to do so.

Yes Seabiscuit is a great story of a struggle to overcome great odds, but

equally as great is that of Hillenbrand to do likewise. It can be

viewed on (Website now closed) and it does make interesting reading and as

many sufferers say “shows a striking resemblance to what they have had to

put up with and endure.

is now 36, an attractive woman who has rarely left her house in the

past 16 years, yet like Seabiscuit and the jockey Red Polland, she has won –

against al the odds and her story too is worth telling.

Date of publication unknown, but it shows just what there is out there to

publicise ME and how to cash in on it. I did in Castleford, so what happened

nationally?

Trev