During the launch of GAFFI last week (6th November) Rupert Everett read a series of poems each of which related to fungal disease in a different way. There were several new original works – perhaps most poignantly one written by a group of patients who have aspergillosis in its various forms and who meet once a month for a support meeting run by the National Aspergillosis Centre. 

The Centre has a Poet in Residence (Caroline Hawkridge) who organises group writing events to take place at the meeting. The poetry is inspired by a number of influences, one by the hospital car park(!) but this one was inspired by the name of the daughter of a doctor who presented a talk at one of the meetings. Her name was Hope and from that we all contributed to the poem ‘Hope is…’ giving our individual impression of what hope means to each of us. There was a wide range of contribution, some from patients, some from carers and some from staff.

Rupert performed our poem outside the Houses of Parliament as video recording is not normally allowed within its walls. Watch & listen here (once on the website click on Rupert’s picture).