Sue at Five (am)

This is Sue Cansdale, and you wouldn't think , to look at her, that it's 5 a.m. or that she is rushing to Dublin Airport, or that she probably had 4 hours sleep.
The pic shows her showing off her first book of poetry, called Hope Sparkles which is just hot off the printing press. The fact that she is mother of Zoe (Wells for Zoe) and the wife of Richard (inventor, designer and maker of the Canzee pump), takes nothing from the fact that she is a truly remarkable women, and we love her.
She is co founder, with Richard, of the organisation Legacy of Life (http://www.legacyoflife.org.uk/), Author, Artist, Farmer, Builder to name a few.
She has just finished this ehthralling collection of poems, with the proceeds going to fund the projects of Wells for Zoe.

Introduction to Hope Sparkles
I first met Sue about five years ago, while I was a lecturer on the MA (Creative Writing) at Northumbria University, and Sue was a student. She specialised in poetry, and came to me for one-to-one tutorials, so we got to know one another well. It was clear from the work she submitted that the natural world, the rhythms of country life and farming were preoccupations of Sue?s, reflecting the wonderful place she and Richard have created in Hartburn. This feeling for the deeper facts of life, and death, was brought out even more
in her poems about her daughter Zoë . I was blown away by the wisdom and serenity Sue always displayed when writing about Zoë ?s death. I vividly remember discussing Sue?s poem about the actual tragedy in tutorial, in the university where Zoë herself had been a student.
Sue?s work is deeply felt, but at its best, unsentimental. Her Zoë poems in particular, are excellent, detached, restrained and all the more powerful for that, in this most difficult of subjects to turn into a piece of art. Zoë?s personality is right there, lively, glowing, loving.
All the more credit to Sue that she is able to celebrate these qualities without bitterness at her loss. Indeed, there is some humour here, even when death is the theme.
Close observations, simply expressed, bring alive the Northumbrian countryside, into which Sue has introduced Irish Dexter cows! Visiting Sue and Richard at home, seeing the happy animals, the beautiful landscape they live and work in, and enjoying the warm welcome and spontaneous al fresco picnics they rustle up, I can only be impressed by the hard work Sue puts in, still finding time to work on her writing. She experiments with difficult structures
and faces difficult subjects, showing a willingness throughout to keep improving her work.
This positive attitude has stood Sue in good stead through her own illness.
The fact that Zoë ?s death was turned into a blessing for those who received her donated organs, is typical of Sue. Even more, taking this further, into involvement with Wells for Zoë, the beneficiary of this book, and campaigning for organ and tissue donation. Her achievement with Transforming Lives, not just compiling the book, and having it printed, publicised and distributed, but getting a TV series to help with it, is fantastic, and will indeed transform lives for those who are given organs donated by readers. I myself signed
up to the Donor register as a result of reading it.
As Sue?s tutor and friend, I can see from her experiences that bad things can indeed happen to good people. But good people, like Sue, are not defeated by them, instead, they turn them into something good, so that others may benefit. I know that readers will enjoy this book, and those in need of clean water will enjoy what it will bring them.

Valerie Laws.