People of Tx! MAG: personal hep C stories wanted

Tx! MAG is our easy-read hepatitis themed comic magazine – thousands of copies of each edition are distributed across NSW to health outlets, community centres, NSPs, prisons and many other organisations. The magazine, which has been in print for ten years, looks at issues related to hepatitis C – how the virus affects people’s lives; how it can be prevented; and how it can be cured using the great new treatments that are now available.

While stories in Tx! MAG are fictional they are developed through community consultations and are always realistic, factual and down-to-earth. For our next edition though, we’d like to include real personal stories and are hoping you, or someone you know, can contribute.

Feedback from our readers constantly call for real-life stories, and we want to deliver! Are you able to share your story? Reading about your experience could mean the difference between someone starting hep C treatment and being cured, or not.

We’re looking for short personal accounts from people currently living in New South Wales, who have lived with hep C and who have been cured using the new Direct Acting Antiviral treatments. These will be made into short (4-6 page) comic book stories for an early 2019 edition of Tx! MAG.

It doesn’t matter how well you can write. We have absolutely no judgement about how you came to have hep C. It’s your story and that’s what’s important!

How it works

• Our writer turns your story into a script.
• Our artist then draws the script as a full colour comic book story.
• Your story, along with two or three other people’s stories will be published in Tx! MAG.
• We’ll keep in touch with you about the progress with each step – it will probably take about 2-3 months in total.
• We’ll send you a $200 gift voucher for your story, and also five copies of the magazine.

What we need

• Only 200-250 words from you about your experience of living with hepatitis C and cure. It doesn’t have to very long or detailed, or even told as a full story – dot points or a few paragraphs will be enough for our writer to create a script. (Send as a word document, or text document – and please include your contact phone number.)
• Let us know if you’re OK with us using your name with the story, or if you want to use an alias.
• Tell us a bit about yourself, your age, what you look like, or you can send a photo too – the artist won’t draw the character in the story to look exactly like you but there will be some similarities.
• We are looking for personal stories, preferably told around one or two specific moments – like finding out you had hep C and how it affected your life, any stigma or discrimination (from family, friends or medical staff), did you try the old treatment, how was the new treatments, how do you feel now you’ve been cured, etc.
• If you need ideas to help prompt you, download this document which has loads of suggestions for writing points.

When we need it

As soon as possible! Please send by 3 January 2019 to: [email protected]

What we will pay

If we use your story we will send you a $200 Coles/Myer gift card which can be used at a variety of stores across NSW including Coles Supermarkets, Coles Central, Coles Express, Myer, Target, Kmart, Kmart Tyre & Auto Services and Officeworks.

Please note: we might not be able to use all stories sent to us, we will let you know if we can’t.

Examples

Here are a couple of sample personal stories we printed in a magazine in 2016 >>> DOWNLOAD PDF

More information

If you need to know more, or need a few inspirational ideas, please contact:

Grace Crowley (Tx! MAG Editor)
email: [email protected]
phone: 02 8217 7704

Check out back-issues online!

• Tx! MAG # 28: Morgan and her pals get a group tattoo, and an extra surprise.
• Tx! MAG #27: Lisa is excited to hear hep C can be cured, and Doug struggles with life & stuff.
• Tx! MAG #25: Sam and Clara have both been living with hep C for many years.