Samuel Tongue

Yes, 92.

So was this kind of facilitating these kinds of workshops, was that a fairly new thing at the time?

And so Survivors Poetry, that was a parallel project and group that was working on Words for Wellbeing, but in what context was that developing?

So at that point, the powers that be, as it were, could see value, they saw value in it.

Yeah, that's true.

And so when these workshops and projects and organisations

In the contemporary world, where we're always hearing about the straitened circumstances of that there's no cash available for these kinds of things, is there still funding pots for these groups?

So it's interesting how in my working life as well where the value of the work that you're doing is seen but it's quite hard to translate that into the language of funders essentially.

So have you struggled with that yourselves?

Always.

But you've been doing it a good long time now, so you must be doing something right, which is very good to know.

When we first met, I think I went to a Maggie's Centre workshop that you were facilitating, and I know that you work in Maggie's Centres as well now, Valerie, you're doing that as well?

But that was something you were doing up until... Yes, very recently.

Yeah.

And so with the work, when you're doing work in something as specific, I suppose, as a Maggie Centre, is that coming from kind of personal experience?

How do you translate your personal experience into the groups that you're working with as well?

It's interesting, again, that you pick up on the ballad form as providing that space of, yeah, you're saying emotional range as well.

Yes.

So that when you're facilitating a workshop, for example, in a Maggie's Centre, there's going to be people at very different stages of learning

their relationship with what's going on yes so yeah like you say like anger um the why me the although this needs to end on the that kind of visceral passion and then the maybe some more yeah more reflective more past yeah there's going to be a whole range of emotions in the room that you're working in