ONE SHORT STORY PER WEEK FOR A YEAR

'If you pull this off,' said the drunk man in the pub, 'I'll give you one thousand pounds.'

And so began the biggest challenge of my life.

If I could write an original short story every single week for a year, I would scoop a huge cash prize.

'But it'll be for charity,' said the drunk, who spent the rest of the evening making the challenge incrementally harder.

'And you'll need to perform the stories... And record them... And put them out as a podcast.... And you'll need to get one thousand people to follow the podcast... And you'll need to find a few other people to split the donation because I don't have one thousand pounds.'

By the next morning, the challenge I'd signed up to seemed impossible and the drunk man in the pub had forgotten all about it. But one year later, I'm pleased to report that the challenge is complete!

- On Sunday 25th Feb, I will publish story #52

- There have been guest performances from seven amazing actors including the Bafta-nominated Taj Atwal and London Grammar's Dot Major.

- And the podcast, Meaningless Problems, should also surpass 10,000 downloads which roughly equates to 1,000 followers (turns out you can't track your podcast followers)

The drunk man in question still has no recollection of setting the challenge but I've managed to get £250 out of him and another £750 from the three others who were present on that fateful evening. That's £1000 for Alzheimer's Research UK.

If you want to throw in a bit extra, it would be hugely appreciated.

And you can listen to the stores here, via the Meaningless Problems podcast: podfollow.com/meaningless

Or read the stories here: https://www.fairobserver.com/author/doe-wilmann/#

Q&A

What have I learnt from writing and recording 52 short stories in a year?

I answer this, in a roundabout way, in episode #51, 'What Was the Point?'

What are my favourite stories?

I released a 'Best of 2023' episode in between episodes 43 and 44. But I've told I chose poorly.

Why Alzheimer's Research UK?

I ran the London Marathon for ARUK in 2022, inspired by my grandad, Len, who lived with dementia until he passed away in late 2020. He always loved a good story and I'm sure he'd have enjoyed some of these. The work ARUK are doing is amazing. The money will help their scientists and researchers find new ways to diagnose dementia, develop new treatments and find a cure for dementia.

Watch and share our new film: https://bit.ly/ARUKForACure