FORWARD - a weekly emailed newsletter written by people with manic depression for people with manic depression, their carers, their closest friends, their family and all professionals in the field of mental health, be they a Doctor, a GP, a nurse, a psychiatrist, a key worker, a CPN, a social worker, a journalist or a broadcaster...
 
FORWARD evolved in one of those moments of synchronicity and serendipity when everything and everyone necessary to nurture it were present at its birth, a year ago this month... and are still there to this day in ever increasing numbers.
 
FORWARD is informative and up-to-the-minute in terms of mental health news. It tells you where to go on the internet if you want to read more about a particularly article.
 
FORWARD contains an assortment of diaries written by manic depressives under the headings A Day In The Life... and Celebrating Wellness. It has humour, sometimes irreverent, salacious, sharp and down right rude at times because we have discovered that's the kid of humour our readership treasures.
 
There's always a Thought or two For Today and articles about medication. There's a Diary, an invaluable, ever enlarging mental health website directory and information about fund raising events which invariably means a great night out enjoying some really good live music.
 
FORWARD is yours to read and to pass on to anyone you also think would benefit in some way from reading it.
 
We make only one request. If you do pass it forward or put it on display in a reading room or on a notice board, encourage those readers to send me individual emails with the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject: box - so that we can keep a count of FORWARD's continually increasing readership, to enable us to become a social enterprise and provide paid work for at least two additional people with manic depression to work full-time producing and distributing FORWARD.
 
Thanks for reading this.  Lotsaluv,
 
Jonathan Ashby  editor  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Bob Houlston   deputy editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Important Notice
Dear Reader,
You may be one of the 173 people who now subscribe to FORWARD and look forward to receiving your own copy by email each week.
On the other hand you may be one of the 346 readers we estimate are being sent a copy of FORWARD to read by one of those 173 subscribers. Well, this is an invitation for you to receive your own copy in future directly from the publisher – with good reason.
The valiant team of volunteers who put FORWARD together each week want to turn the venture into a social enterprise which will enable us to seek charitable funding, deploy even more volunteers in FORWARD’s production and reach even more readers, especially those without email facilities. To do this we really need a minimum of 500 subscribers… so our request is simple enough. If you are willing to become a subscriber instead of just a reader, please you’re your email address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject: box. Your willingness to do this would be most gratefully appreciated.
Thanks and best wishes,
Jonathan Ashby
Editor, FORWARD