Meet Mark and Cheryl, the hot new story-telling duo!

Meet Mark and Cheryl, friends living at one of our supported living services in Suffolk, and now the authors’ of a awe-inspiring story that has stayed in the hearts of all who have read it.

You can view the story PDF here.

For the last 8 years, friends Mark (56) and Cheryl (43) have lived together with Ambient, in the village of Leystone in Suffolk. In normal times, they each keep a weekly schedule packed with day centre visits, coordinated activities, and catch-ups with friends. Both being home all the time now (and spending more time together than they were used to!) they needed a new structure.

So, Gill, one of their carers from Ambient (the care provider that has supported Mark and Cheryl in their home from the start) asked what they would like to do. The pair agreed it would be nice to write a story together. Monday afternoons became the dedicated time to do this. Gill sourced them a laptop and this week, the story telling began!

Story number one of Mark and Cheryl’s Adventure is entitled A Picnic in the Jungle.

Mark and Cheryl picked a theme for their first story, a picnic.  Imagination took flight, and in under an hour it was finished with Gill- who was capturing their words on the laptop- struggling to keep up. Gill said, “I had no idea they had such imagination! It was wonderful to see them uniting to create a marvellous and mischievous story!” The pair then worked with Gill, choosing pictures online to illustrate the story. Once complete, they insisted Gill call Care Manager, Sue Brown, as they were so pleased with what they had done.

Sue, who together with her team of 18 provide supported living services for over 100 adults with learning disabilities and mental ill health along the Suffolk coast says: “In this very strange and stressful time it’s wonderful to see how Mark and Cheryl are thriving. Like many others with learning disabilities, they find it hard to fully grasp what’s going, and the changes to their lives due to lockdown, but activities like this lets them get fully absorbed in something nice and forget what’s going on.”

Mark and Cheryl are now planning a series and would love people to read them, says Mark, “Inviting a Sea lion to a picnic is not a good idea. You’ll have to read our story to find out why!”

We are now looking for illustrators/animators to bring Mark and Cheryl’s story to life; to continue the adventure that they’ve only just started! To keep up with their journey, and to stay updated with their latest stories, make sure to follow Ambient on social media:

Ambient on Facebook

Ambient on Twitter

Read Mark and Cheryl’s first adventure here.

Make sure to share and let us know what you think!