Disability Rights campaigner’s book on sale in Frome

Taking Steps, the touching and powerful poetry collection by Somerset author Helen Sims, is now in stock at Hunting Raven Books in Cheap Street.

Helen Sims was born in Bath in November 1981. She has had cerebral palsy since birth, and cannot walk or stand unaided. Age 14, she had several major orthopaedic operations, spending almost four months in hospital, (100 miles from home), and had to learn to walk from scratch. The surgeries were the start of a battle with clinical depression.

Helen is a passionate and outspoken campaigner for disability rights. She has been raising awareness of the realities of life with a disability, hoping she can help people understand better, since she was eight years old.

A contributor to the letters’ pages of her local newspapers and a former radio presenter, Helen never holds back from raising awareness of what she believes in.

Helen said, “It was always a dream of mine to have my own book since I was a little girl, and through the support of friends and family it was finally released in June 2016.

“When somebody asks me what I’ve done I can now hand them my little book and say, “Here. This is what I’ve done” – and that means more to me than I can ever tell you. I hope that the book raises awareness of disability (and the situations we face), in a creative way, but I also hope the writing stands for itself.

“Disability isn’t the only issue discussed in this book. I’ve included short stories, poems and articles about a range of subjects. The main point of it was not only to raise awareness, but to turn all the negative things that have happened in my life, everything I’ve been through, into something strong and positive that might help others at the same time.”

Taking Steps is an entertaining and inspiring collection of poems, short stories and articles that touch on a wide range of topics. Helen’s passion for disability rights is evident in some works, while her fun nature and sense of humour shine through in others.

Taking Steps is available for purchase at Hunting Raven Books in Cheap Street, Frome. For more details visit www.face book.com/HuntingRavenBooks