The story is actually about identity. I’m actually a bit confused about who I am at the moment. I actually wanted to start with my name. My name is spelt Ng. Just two letters. Because I’m from Hong Kong. Very often people in the town would ask how is this pronounced? Well I just take someone’s joke about my name - I’m Miss Ng. Let’s do it fast, it’s ‘miss-ing’. I’m missing. And it’s kind of like, yeah, I’m missing actually, because I don’t know who I am now.

I arrived in the town, in Bridgwater, last year. I feel very welcomed. People here are lovely. Still I feel like I’m trying to fit in and at the same time trying to resolve whatever memories I have from Hong Kong. What happened in Hong Kong in the past few years was traumatising for me. I wouldn’t go into detail about what happened, it was something about the politics there. I didn’t realise that I would have this energy, reflection, or courage to live on. To move on from the past few years.

I have learned to just sit. Not really clinging onto the past or to whatever will happen. I find it is an amazing thing that I never imagined I would be able to do. So it’s like finding a new me. It’s a very different person I get to meet everyday, in front of the mirror. It’s an amazing thing.

I’ve been practicing meditation. On a daily basis. After getting up I would spend at least half an hour. I would sense my own breaths. My different senses, like: oh the pigeons, are out there, they are making noises, grumbling. I would smile to myself, from the bottom of my heart. Feeling: oh, I don’t have to worry because I have NOW. Yeah. The strength is really from discovering the power of being in the here and now.

So I am nicknamed ‘Missing’. I still sometimes feel that I’m missing, but then I try to meditate and sit with the feeling. The empty feeling. Because it is part of me. It is amazing how the sitting would help me be more at ease with the feeling, which is that I don’t know yet (or I will never know) what is the so-called right identity. And it’s ok. Because now I feel empowered to complete myself by practicing meditation, by practicing self love - and I hope that by doing it I can have the energy to take care of the other people. Also to hopefully be an example of how possible it is for anybody to come out of anything. There are ups and downs in life apparently. Life is not perfect. It’s about how we approach it. How we reframe it, really.

There is really opportunity in a crisis. I’m optimistic and I think this kind of optimism couldn’t have happened, had I not experienced what I have experienced. So I appreciate, in general, what has come into my life. There is an analogy that I agree with, which is that: without the compost it is just not possible to have the flower. I think I have learned this from the past few years and I wouldn’t want to change. I feel very strong… now. I am strong.

My story began: I have a grandson and he had nowhere to go. He wanted to join cubs, but where we live in a new community, we don’t have a community centre - and he was so upset. I went to bed that night and I thought, someone’s got to do something. We’ve got, at the time we had about three thousand people living there, with lots of young families. There was nothing for him to do and I thought his friends must feel exactly the same… Why don’t I try to do something about this. Maybe I can get a community building built. I went to bed and I thought about it and I thought: well, I’ll see how I feel in the morning. I got up - that was still in my gut. I thought, right, this is going to help an awful lot of people. I’m just going to do it. I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.

I went on the laptop and I was looking up everything I could think of. Then I found a course on communities at the Eden Project. They had a week’s course, so I spent the week and I learned so much. I came away with fire in my belly really, and thought: I know what to do. I took the next steps, doing community consultation. I was very nervous about doing that because I didn’t know how people were going to react - but I just went out there and I just did it. I said: what do you, as a community, need? Or what do you want? The whole thing went from there.

To cut a long story short, I turned this into a fully registered charity. I’ve got a fantastic team of volunteers that I’ve built up along the way and I’ve got six trustees. We run it between us. None of us have ever taken a penny for doing this, but we love it and we know it’s going to mean so much to people.

I’ve just done a big lunch, for the platinum jubilee, and we had 600 people turn up. I never expected so many people. Everyone was just so happy. We did it all in tents because we haven’t got a building. There was a young girl and she had two very young children, and she was suffering with really bad anxiety. I went knocking on everyone’s door, asking: would they be happy to come and join in an event on the park? Finding out what they’d like me to do. And this girl said: I haven’t been out for about five years, I can’t go out, I’ve got anxiety - I just can’t go out. I said: I’m so sorry about that. Look, if you want to come out, come along - or ring me and I’ll come and walk with you. I gave her my number and then I just thought no more of it. Then she actually turned up. She said it was the first time in five years that she had been outside the house and that just melted my heart. So, you know, this is what we can do in the meantime, until we get there.

When I said we’re going to need £1.3 million… we all laughed. Right now I’ve managed to get £960 thousand, and so we’re just £340 thousand short. We are so close, but that last bit seems so hard! But, in a way, it’s like a big challenge - and I love a challenge - and hopefully next year we will have a community building for everyone.

There will never be change unless you actually make that change happen yourself. I’ve never done anything like this before in my life and I have learned the whole way through. I’ve learned so much. Having some of the really hard times I’ve had, I’ve learned more. I’d say that, definitively, I am strong. I didn’t know I had that amount of strength in me - but I think it’s in all of us, it just takes something to bring it out.

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To follow the progress of her project or to get involved visit: www.wilstockhub.com

Mariusz: The last five months was very crazy for us. I landed in the hospital for a week. My wife was by herself with three boys. She had to be very strong to keep the home together and care for me as well. The story started when she was thinking: she’s alone.

Małgosia: I was thinking: I’m alone. I have some friends and even family in Bridgwater but, you know, people have their lives and they can’t give you lots of time. I thought no one would help me if I would need it, but lots of people helped and they were very supportive.

Mariusz: She found out she was not alone, because our friends helped her. Our friends called her, brought dinners for her, and she didn’t feel alone. From this point we thought: we need to do something.

Małgosia: So I was thinking: we have to do something for other people who might need our help, because they are alone. So that is why we started the community group You Are Not Alone. We would like to do lots of projects together to help others - and to give opportunities for people to do something for others as well.

Mariusz: So we decided to have our first meeting in January. We invited people, but we didn’t know who would come, and at the first meeting there were over twenty people. We heard from them that it was a great idea, that we could come together after sitting in a hole for two years after Covid, that people need to go out and interact with each other. Then the second meeting arrived in February. More people arrived, new people came, and we had the idea to do some kind of fair for the community to come together. Then on the Sunday the war started in the Ukraine. So, with my wife, we decided to do something to help the Ukrainian people. We thought we would tell our friends we would be collecting some goods, that we will be sending to help them. In the end we managed to send two lorries of nearly two thousand boxes. Our friends from our church collected over eleven thousand pounds, which we spread around the refugees. This situation showed how people are strong together. The huge community of Bridgwater people helped us to collect, helped us to pack, helped us to loads the lorry. It was a very great time. Very tired. It made us stronger and it showed us that together as a community we can be strong. We can help others.

Małgosia: Sometimes we just need to do small things and big things can happen. We organised an event at the beginning of May, because we wanted to raise money for Ukrainian refugees, especially children. We thought there would be about maybe 100 people and it was a very big event, about five or six hundred people came and we raised £1500 for Ukrainian children, so it was amazing. If we would like to do something only by ourselves, we wouldn’t be able to do these big things - but if we do work together we can do lots of things. Every person has different skills and different abilities, so when we are working together we can do something big.

Mariusz: We like to encourage people, so we can do much more together than alone. People are very open to help, we just have to give them opportunities and open some doors, then they will be able to help others. At the moment we would like to concentrate on helping Ukrainian refugees already in Somerset.

Małgosia: I’m strong. Even if I’m shy and sometimes I feel like I can’t do something, I always wanted to help people. Even if I don’t want to do something, I would rather stay at home, I would go and help.

Mariusz: I’m feeling strong because I’ve got the person next to me, my wife, who makes me stronger every day. Together we are stronger. Friendship and love keep us stronger.

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To follow the progress of this project or to get involved visit:

https://www.facebook.com/YouAreNotAloneAndFriends/

Eighteen years ago I was very ill, basically, but nobody knew what was wrong with me. I ended up having lots of tests, but nothing showed. Then I ended up going into hospital, because I collapsed. They did lots of tests on me and in the end they did a bone marrow test. I found out that I had bone marrow cancer, which is something called multiple myeloma. From there on my journey started.

I was actually given three years to live, because at that stage there weren’t many drugs around. They put me on a drug and I miraculously got better. Gradually I got better and better. Then I had something called a stem cell transplant. This is where they give you a growth hormone and you produce lots and lots of stem cells. They then spin them off your body, store them and freeze them. Then a couple of months later they give you a big dose of chemo. Kill all your bone marrow. Then you get the infusion of your stem cells back.

Anyway, after this I had four years of total remission - so I beat the three years anyway. Then at the end of that I still had enough stem cells for one more treatment, so I went on chemotherapy and then I had another stem cell transplant. Again, I got four years out of that. Then, after that, there were mutterings of having a third stem cell treatment - well this is almost unheard of, because you body just can’t take it. You can’t get your bloods back to where they were. Anyway, I did. So, I had my third one. But after that it took a long time for my bloods to come back. I ended up going to a Chinese herbalist, I had all these horrible mixtures that I took, and my bloods came back to normal.

Since then I’ve been on different chemotherapies, but unfortunately for me I’m beginning to run out of drugs - because people don’t normally live this long. But at the moment, I’m ok. I’m taking a drug at the moment, where I take a small dose every day. That’s keeping the myeloma at bay - at the moment.

So eighteen years down the road, I’m well, I’m fine, and I’m living life to the full. I go away a lot. I go abroad a lot, because I keep thinking: maybe next year I can’t. So every year I have about six foreign holidays. I’m beginning to run out of money now, so I may have to curb my lifestyle, but I just love going away.

I’m very lucky that I’m very positive - and I think positivity is the key. I mean, when they say to you “oh, it’s back.” I go down and I’m upset for about two weeks. Then you get yourself going again. Yes. Then you carry on. Up until now every drug has worked, so I’m super sensitive to drugs luckily.

I’m very lucky. I’ve got an inner strength that keeps me going. I don’t think I’d still be alive if I hadn’t got that, because it’s not just drugs. You’ve got to have the will to live. The strength to carry on and keep going.

I’m a D2A carer, so that’s Discharge to Assess. We assess people to be able to stay at home. We look after people of all ages, ranging from teenagers right the way up to elderly. Mostly it’s elderly.

You’ve got to find the strength to be able to make those decisions of what’s best, for THEM. Not just what you think is going to be the easiest option.

We had one guy who was really struggling with his medication - and would almost take an overdose, because he was struggling with it that much. So we put calls in place, so that he would have a carer there for: morning, tea, lunch, bed to help him. That was a hell of a fight, to get the social services to actually fund it, and things like that.

So finding the strength to just keep pushing. To persevere. To get them what they need.

It can be quite frustrating, because it does feel like you’re banging you head against a wall. But when you get through that barrier, it’s that relief of: they are going to get what they need. No matter how hard it was for me to get them there, they are going to get that help that they deserve. Especially when you’ve got people who are nearly one hundred. They’ve paid taxes all their life, they’ve worked hard. They deserve to put their feet up and know that they can stay at home, in the home they’ve worked towards all their life.

You know, you’ve got to find that strength for them.

I feel strong because I’m helping people to live their life, for as long as they can.

I am a young father, separated from the other parent. I find that it takes a lot of strength, in that respect. You face a lot of difficulties in broken families. There’s often fights for contact and those sorts of things that people go through. But at the end of the day, the one thing that keeps you going, and keeps the strength up with that, is the look on my little girl’s face when I can do things for her.

We’ve just taken her, a week ago, on a really nice holiday to London to see Frozen Live. It’s things like that that make it all worth it - because a couple of years ago, things weren’t so great. You know, really really difficult and struggling in communication with the other parent. That was something that was always a big struggle. When we broke up, there were a lot of strong feelings there. A lot of unresolved things that, even now, can be quite difficult to deal with, but it’s important to be able to focus primarily on my daughter. She’s what matters.

Just being able to see, over the last few years, how many strides we’ve made. How far we’ve actually come. Being able to do more and more with her and seeing her grow. It fills you with a lot of pride. It does take a lot of strength, to be able to just keep going and to know what the right thing to do is.

It’s one of those things, I worry a lot about myself, and how I am as a dad, and things like that. I’ve had my own bad experiences with my own dad and that can be quite difficult to look back on.

But just knowing that my daughter is strong, happy, and that she’s doing well - it just fills me with that pride. It fills me with that strength and it makes me feel like a good dad. It makes me feel stronger, knowing that it doesn’t matter what anyone else might say or see, because she’s happy. She’s doing well. It fills you with pride.

You can handle it, because there’s a six year old girl who needs you and loves you. So… yeah… I’m strong.

When I was growing up I had eight other siblings, so it was hard, because our parents didn’t have money. They were always getting me into trouble, because I was the only girl living at home. I was weak. I wouldn’t fight them back and say: Oh no, it wasn’t me, it was them. And I’ve had that all through my life.

I retired and I came to Bridgwater. I walked along the canal and I thought: this navigation buoy is a bit tatty. So the first thing I did in Bridgwater was to get the navigation buoy restored. I had to sit back and listen to people: You’re not from Bridgwater, so why are you doing it? But I thought: I’m doing it - because I felt passionate about it.

Then, after that was done, I started doing events. Organising events around the docks with marquees, fair ground… and I felt really really proud of myself, because I’ve never done anything like that before. I thought: you’re not that stupid, you’re not that weak. You can do things. You have got a brain.

Then covid came… and I’ve sort of gone down hill. Worthless. I don’t fit in Bridgwater. Even though I’m still involved in Bridgwater, I go to meetings and things like that. I help at the museum. But I just don’t feel that I belong. I get very depressed and I’ve been going through a lot of health problems. The last two years just sitting at home and not doing anything has been frustrating. It’s made my depression worse. I’m on the border... but I want to get out there, I don’t want to sit and vegetate.

But I will get it back. When the docks open again I would like to start doing events again.

When I thought about doing the events around the docks, I was thinking to myself: where do I start? How do I do it? Then I started talking to people who do knitting, and make cards, and things like that. They said: We’ll come along. Then I went to see the man that’s got the marquees and asked him about it. Went to the town council. Went to Sedgemoor for a temporary licence. Got in touch with Somerset for permission to do it around the docks. Got in touch with a fairground. And it just sprung from there. Everybody that came, they thought it was great. Even one year, it was raining - disaster - and I thought: I’m not doing this again. But I jumped up and did it again the following year. They said that was the best year.

People say: why are you getting involved in so many things? Because I like to be doing things, I like to meet people - and I like to help. If I was weak, I wouldn’t do the things I do. If you asked me fifty odd years ago: Would I be doing what I’m doing? No, I wouldn’t think I’d be doing anything like this. I just like to do it.

I will do it again. Yeah. I will find the strength to carry on. It’s a lot of hard work, but I will find the strength to carry on. I’m strong.
I’m a strong person.

The last three years for me, coming up four, have been horrific. Losing my son, tragically, in an accident in Spain. Just really not knowing which way to go and not knowing how to cope with stuff. My other children are my word, well all my children are my world. That stands out more I suppose, when something like this happens. I’ve got four grand children as well. They’re my world and I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have the rest of them. I’ve not been mysel. Not known which way to turn or who to turn to. Then a year or so ago, I had a stroke, which they tell me is due to stress, worry, things like that. Obviously that knocked me back. But it was bizarre. It was almost like… time to stop and let the body just regenerate a bit. Ten weeks. I didn’t stay in bed, but ten weeks I was off, not doing anything at all - which for me is surreal. I can’t go on holiday for two weeks, because I can’t sit around for that amount of time. To do that was bizarre. I think if my vision had been clear I would have just gone: ah sod it, I can move, I’ll do it. I think the vision was the thing that kept me in place, to respect the fact that had happened. Even though I couldn’t walk properly in the beginning, I got through it and just kept battling. Something told me to slow down and respect what had happened - now - you know what I mean?

This is about strength. I’m starting to find my strength again now. Don’t know why, but it’s time to. The last few weeks really is what has made me feel… feel better. I enjoy my work. I run a successful stage company. I’ve got to work hard, and I do, and I love it. Some days I’m physically knackered and I still love it. It’s actually happening and I feel good about it again. Different things in my life are changing as well, which is for the better. There’s something inside now that’s giving me that inner strength, that push.

A lot of people have noticed that I’m coming back to being me, getting back to the old Adie. You have to always live with what’s happened and you get used to it in a way. Slowly, very slowly. But for other people it’s, sort of, yesterday’s news. I’m not ‘Adie: The Guy That Lost His Son.’ I’m Adie. For me that’s a massive massive change in my life. Yesterday’s news is a better thing, because it’s not their focus. Within the first six months you sort of become famous for the wrong reasons. Everybody's looking at you, everybody's talking about you. You know they are, or maybe they’re not, but you think they are.

It’s a completely different mindset. I’ve always been a hard man, but no, I’m different now. I’m still finding me, and that’s nice. Nice to get it back, it really is. And changing. I am having to change my life, which is needed, much much needed. I think, to be fair, it was needed before we lost Dan but I didn’t really see it. And now I look at these things as positive things, whereas before, everything was just this massive negative. This massive lull. This weird scenario that you can’t get out of.

Now I feel like I’ve opened the door a little bit and I’m coming through it. Which I was told would happen but, you can’t see it at the beginning. You can’t see that way out. You just think: I’m forever going to be upset and distraught. Now upset times come unexpectedly, but sometimes at the right time.

I’m not looking for anything. I think most of my life I have tried to look for something - but at the moment I just really am starting to feel content. Which is cool. I’m definitely strong. I am strong. I’m feeling stronger every day now.

I worked here for about eight years, then I got sick. Found out at 39 that I had breast cancer. So I was really really ill for a year, then my boss decided that she was getting older and didn’t want the shop any more. I panicked and thought: No one is going to hire me, I’ve had this very serious illness… so I thought: I’ll buy the business. So I went from working here to owning it, which is quite terrifying.

I’d finished active treatment, but I was still on Tamoxifen, which is something they give you to try to keep cancer at bay. That made me really really ill. Then they tried a different one that didn’t agree with me either. So for about four years, trying to run a business - and deal with the aftereffects of chemo and radiotherapy - so very very tired. And I’ve struggled with depression. And my brain tells me things I can’t do. I just must have had a mental break almost, thinking: yeah, we can do this. I’ve never run a business, I’ve only ever worked for people. I had no idea what I was doing. It was just that fear that no one would hire me, and I needed a wage. I knew how to sell, so I thought: well we’ll give it a go. It is scary, but especially after something like cancer, it gives you a different perspective.

I think I surprised myself, because I’m quite a shy person. I don’t put myself out there. I don’t like taking risks. I don’t like showing myself up. So to just go to my husband: Can we buy a shop? And he went: Yeah we can buy a shop. It was just a moment of madness really. And the bank went: Yeah, you can have the money. It was madness really thinking about it. Especially having no background whatsoever of: buying things, doing VAT, knowing how to do tax returns (even now it terrifies me). I think I’ve had it nine years now - and it’s gone from strength to strength, including my health. Sometimes you’ve got to take that leap of faith and hope that it works. Touch wood… It has done.

And it’s fantastic. I love working here, I love the people. It’s a nice business to be in, jewellery. Everybody comes in because they have a story of their own to tell. You’re celebrating people’s birthdays with them, anniversaries, new births. You see these people coming back year after year. You’re following their lives - and they remember us, and it’s so lovely that they keep coming back. It makes me happy.

In my own little environment, in my own little shop, I’m quite confident. Outside of it, not so much But it has strengthened who I am. It’s made me challenge myself, which I’m not very good at doing. I do take more risks than I ever used to, and understand that I can do so much more than my brain tells me I can. I’ve always put myself down, so it’s nice to achieve something - and make a success of it.

You can go through scary times, and they can feel like they’re going to break you, but then you come out the other side. So I think anybody, if they’re going through a moment where they are doubting themselves and thinking: This is it, it’s all over, I can’t do this anymore… Remember tomorrow is another day. You have to trust that little voice and go: Yeah, you can do it. You’re strong. You can believe in yourself and you will achieve it. I am strong.

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To see more about this local independent business visit: www.kempsofbridgwater.co.uk

To be honest, I don’t like to stay in one place for a long time. I just like to change places. If it’s in my hand, I’ll just want to change my location every month. I’ve been here for one month and now I want to go to Birmingham city. Then in one month I’ll want to change the location - because I want to see how England is and what the beauty of England is. I love nature. I feel strong whenever I just change location. I love to know new people in my life.

I’m a rapper basically. Today my task is to record one song. I think that a writer, like a philosopher, should change places all the time. I’m in Bridgewater and I can catch a lot of things for my songs from Bridgwater. Then I go to Birmingham, it’s a crowded place, and there are lots of things I can catch there. That seems good for me, for my career, for my mental health - and the thing is, even if I don’t have a single penny in my pocket, I love to be happy from my mind.

We need to find happiness. This is my opinion. I like to go somewhere else, to new and different places. But happiness is inside. It’s not in the places. It’s not with the people. Yeah, I love to change location, but I can’t say: If I change the location that will make me happy. First I have to prepare myself. To become happy.

Back home they say that an empty mind is a devil for human beings. All people have to have their goals in their life. If they have goals, their mind will become busy, thinking about that. So if my mind is busy, one hundred percent, I will think about the positive things, so that will make me happy.

If we will not try anything new, how can we get the result from that thing? If I will not trust anybody here, how will I make a friend? How will I get to know about Bridgwater? So I go with them outside and then I can decide if this guy is good or bad for me. I can’t judge you before I properly know you. The thing is, people are saying: If somebody cheats me, next time I will think twice before I trust somebody. We have five fingers in our hand, but all the fingers are not the same. Like this, all people are not the same. Maybe seventy percent are bad people in the world, but thirty percent are still good. We need to find the thirty percent, so we can make our company good. I become very friendly in just two or three days. I work here and these guys are new to me, but now we’ve got a relationship in just one month, like we’ve known each other for a long time.

So we can trust a lot of people. We need to open our eyes and see how the world is going, but I like to change locations, and I don’t feel afraid for anything. I am very blessed and very strong. The thing is that I always prepare myself for the next task. If we make our mind busy with things, like what we want to do in our career, then we will become happy - and we will become strong.

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To follow his music and travels visit: www.instagram.com/candy_sheoran