One Million Lovely Letters

216. Jodi Ann Bickley

Twenty-six year old Jodi Ann, from Birmingham, started her website ‘One Million Lovely Letters’ after she contracted a brain infection in 2011. Also diagnosed with ME, Jodi Ann could no longer work and was confined to her bedroom for much of the day.

After hundreds of hours thinking of what she can do to create a positive impact on other people, she set up a website offering to handwrite letters to others who were having a bad day or needed comfort or support. Jodi Ann created a website which linked to Twitter and Facebook and within an hour she had received over 100 requests from people around the world.

Since then, Jodi Ann has written over 3,000 letters to people in 30 countries. She currently has 13,000 requests in her inbox and has taken on volunteers to help her to write the letters. Jodi Ann has raised over £14,000 for the project through Kickstarter, attracting almost 1000 backers and has used the funding to set up workshops with young people where they create ‘happiness packages’ for other young people as well as paying for postage and writing materials.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“Jodi Ann has confronted her illness with unrelenting positivity and turned a personal challenge into a source of comfort for people across the world. I am pleased to name her as a Point of Light.”

Jodi Ann said:

“Receiving the points of light award is just wonderful, the project stemmed from a moment of a darkness and has since provided so much light, opportunity and wonder to my world and if I can forever continue to help people via my letters and help others help people through their own letters and experiences then that’s what dreams are made of really. It’s a blessing to be able to do this everyday, thank you so much for the award!”

Jodi Ann’s Local MP, Roger Godsiff said:

“I congratulate Jodi Ann on her award and on all the support she has given to people around the world.”