Toby writes about’ feeling different’
“Write what you know”, said author Mark Twain. Toby Hall from Powys has done just that with his children’s book, Walter the farting whale.
The idea for my book came from a story I told my daughter, Emmeline, when she was very young (she is now 6).
The story was about a young beluga whale, Walter, who was born without a blowhole. When Walter visited the surface to expel air from his lungs, he would instead let out huge farts! Walter tries to find solutions to this problem, with the aid of an old snow crab.
However, these solutions only made the problem worse, and it was only by embracing his uniqueness, supported by the love of his parents, that Walter accepted his differences.
Walter the Farting Whale, by Toby Hall and Jo Constant.
The book is aimed at 4 to 8 year olds. It costs £7.99 on Amazon, £3.99 on Kindle or free on Kindleunlimited.
This story resonates a lot with me. Being a sufferer of ME, an invisible disability, makes me feel different from many other people. Like Walter, this illness often takes away our dignity, and can be embarassing, as well as debilitating. After relentlessly pursuing ‘cures’ to my illness, it was only by accepting that ME/CFS is now a part of me, and that I needed to adapt to my new life, that I finally found some semblance of peace.
Just like Walter, I was also lucky enough to have a very loving mother who supported me throughout my diagnosis; when I was forced to give up my career as a teacher of history and head of department; through divorce, and separation from my child, and all the other things that this horrible disease takes away from those of us who are afflicted. I do not know how I would have managed without my amazing mum, who refuses to give up on me.
it was only by accepting that ME/CFS is now a part of me, and that I needed to adapt to my new life, that I finally found some semblance of peace.
In 2016 I was diagnosed with ME, and some years later also diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I recently finished writing the book & self-published it via Amazon KDP. This endeavour took me over 5 years due to my struggles with brain fog, extreme exhaustion, & post exertional malaise that resulted from my efforts to fight through the two. My friend Jo helped.
Although the words of the book are all mine and Jo’s, the illustrations were created using Gemini AI. Jo was desperate to illustrate our book; however, given her own health struggles with FM this would have been a huge undertaking, and just was not feasible. Gemini AI was also very useful in helping to mitigate some of my own struggles; for example, helping me to create a synopsis for my book.
This book was a way to show my daughter just how much she means to me. I became so ill that my only option was to move in with my mother, now my full-time carer. As a result, I sadly only see my daughter once a month, after a round trip of hundreds of miles over the course of a weekend. This book, which I dedicated to my daughter, will hopefully serve as a permanent reminder to her of her place in my heart, and of how, despite the distance between us, I am always, always thinking of her.
I hope that my story might be an inspiration to fellow sufferers who struggle with this underfunded, misunderstood, life-altering and often debilitating disease. It might help to bring awareness to more people of the exhausting and often overwhelming fight that those of us with ME/CFS and fibromyalgia go through just to get through each day.
