Just over 18 months ago I was sitting in my flat doing all in my power, and repeatedly failing, to not swallow copious amounts of vodka, wine, beer and any other form of alcohol I could afford. It is startling to think that a year and half later I am invited by our local MP to the Houses of Parliament, where I am greeted with a hug and the words ‘fabulous poetry,’ referring to the successful poetry evening held by Blue Sky Arts, the group I have set up for recovering addicts.

Tessa Munt, our patron and MP for Burnham-On-Sea, met the 7 of us at Portcullis House and we sat down for coffee and a chat, before she was whisked off to one of the many appointments in her busy day. She left us in capable hands and we were taken on a guided tour of Parliament, culminating in us sitting in the gallery in the House of Commons, listening in on a debate on petrol prices.

It was a fascinating experience and we learnt many fun facts along the way. Like, did you know our monarch is technically not allowed to wander into the Houses of Parliament due to Charles I impromptu arrival to arrest 5 MPs (one of the precursors to the Civil War)? Well, we didn’t.

Afterwards we took a pleasant stroll down the South Bank, stopping for oodles of noodles and chopstick fun at Wagamama’s, before the journey home. I felt proud to be a representative of the charity.

Somewhere House Somerset has an ‘Easy Fundraising‘ account set up and so far we’ve received £14.72 thanks to people supporting our charity.

To help raise funds for Somewhere House Somerset simply create an account (using us as your chosen charity) and then shop as usual. It works in a similar way to many other loyalty shopping sites, but instead of earning points when you shop,you raise a donation for charity instead. It’s as simple as that!

You can shop with over 2,000 well known stores and each they donate up to 20% of what you spend. For example, John Lewis will donate 1%, Amazon 1.5%, The Body Shop 6%, some insurance retailers will even donate up to £30 simply for taking out a policy with them!

They have hundreds of shops linked including, eBay, Dunelm Mill, Amazon, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, Glasses Direct, BooHoo.com, Simply Be and many more.