The importance of sharing

We aim to publish as many shared stories as we can to help members of our community benefit from the experiences of others.

This may be:

  • On our website
  • In our 'Keeping You Posted' Newsletter
  • On the member forums platform
  • In our magazine

We are fortunate to have many of you approach us, willing to volunteer to write an article, for which we are so grateful. It does mean, however, that we are not always able to publish all of them, and sometimes we will wait till we have a particular topic that we are drawing attention to before we link a relevant shared story with it.    

We appreciate your understanding, and with your permission, we will keep your article in our ‘library’ as we never know when the right moment might come up to launch it.

Sometimes we may ask you if we can use a small section of your article or a summary and a quote, rather than the full thing.

If you would like to send us an article/blog, please follow our guidance below and submit your article via our form.

Submit an article

Topic

There is no limit to potential article topics: from health and lifestyle (e.g. diet, exercise or travel) to medication management, or managing adrenal insufficiency at work. 

Whatever you choose to share, bear in mind that we will be looking for a different angle or an unusual topic.  Everyone’s experience is, of course, unique and will have value, but if you can also find a new way of expressing your story and engaging your audience, we will be more likely to select your article for publication.

Please take a look at our current Blog posts to get an idea of the breadth of topics we have already online, and the styles

Shared stories

Length

Aim for no more than 1500 words, which gives us the flexibility to use your article in print, rather than just on the website. Longer articles are also welcome, but may just be published on the website as appropriate.

Format

To make the article more engaging and easier to read, try and break it up into sections with subheadings. It can help certain sections stand out. Please do add in quotes where you have them – pop them in italics so we know they are quotes or testimonials.

Tone of voice

This is your article (not AI's!), and as such, we want to give you as free rein as possible over the style in which it is written. However, the more engaging, informative and inspiring it is, the more value it has for our community. We would respectfully request that it be written in an easy-to-read style and is not inflammatory or political.

Accuracy

As we do not have the resources for our Clinical Advisory Panel to check all of our blogs and articles, we would ask for you to only include medical/clinical facts and information if they are accurate. We will also review your article, but it is helpful to us if you have already made sure of the facts first.

Images

We need at least one high-quality image to accompany your article, which fits/describes your blog topic, but the more images you have to share, to bring your article to life, the better.

It would also be great to have a headshot/photo of yourself as author, for your bio section and one of your emergency injection kit in situ for our #ShareYourKit question (see the form).

Please note that files uploaded via our form are limited to 50MB per file.  Any larger files can be emailed over to us at opsmanager@addisons.org.uk, with reference to your article.

Please ensure you have the permission of anyone in the photo to share it with us. 

Content

A bit about you!

It's highly engaging for our community to get to know you a little through your article.  Please send us a short (2 or 3 sentence) biography about yourself, written in the third person, e.g. Anna lives in North Wales with her husband and two children. She is passionate about walking and reading fiction.

As mentioned in the Images section, we'd also love to have a photo of you, or a headshot.

Please also let us have answers to our regular blog FAQs:  

  • How do you remember to take your tablets?
  • Where do you keep your injection kit? Great to have a photo to accompany this.
  • What type of medic ID do you have?

If you would prefer to be anonymous, then, of course, that is also totally fine.   Please make this clear to us on your sign-up form.  You could use something like: ‘This article was authored by a member of the ADSHG community keen to share their experience with XYZ… ‘ rather than the short bio.

Anonymity of others

The experiences that our members have with various healthcare teams can strongly influence their journey with Addison’s or adrenal insufficiency.  This may be a positive or negative influence.  Within the boundaries of an individual blog article, we are not able to present a balanced view, and so we ask you to avoid naming hospitals or individual healthcare professionals within your article.

Permissions & Privacy

It is really important that we have your consent to publish your article and any accompanying photos. Please be aware that pictures, videos and stories posted on the internet are available for anyone to see and share, which is beyond our control.

We ask you for your permission on our 'Share Your Story' online form, which is also used to submit your article or blog to us.

ADSHG Privacy Policy

Under 18s

If your material features anyone who is vulnerable or under the age of 18, we will ask you to confirm your relationship to the vulnerable or young person and to sign, date and return a hard copy permission form before we use the content.

Next steps

  • Write your article and source your images
  • Send us your article and images via our online form, which also asks you to confirm your permission to share them with our community.
    We will add your article to our library.
  • We will review your article and ask one of our wonderful proofreader volunteers to read it and suggest any edits for grammatical / accessibility reasons.  We are careful not to make changes that alter the tone significantly, or obviously, the detail of your experience.
  • If and when we can publish your article in either its full form or a summary, we will get in touch with you to let you know.   We aim to publish one article a month, depending on our resources.

Thank you again for your kind offer to open up about your life with Addison’s or adrenal insufficiency.  We know that it is much appreciated by the membership community, and you are helping us raise awareness of this ‘invisible’ health issue.

Submit your article

Please email enquiries@addisons.org.uk if you have any questions we have not been able to answer here.

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