Book Release Day Charity Live Streams
It was June 2025: the UK ban on single use disposable vapes had come into effect, Zohran Mamdani won the Democrat party nomination for the New York mayoral election, and I was preparing to release my romance/suspense novel 'The Midwife in the Middle' the following month. I was excited to publish a story I'd been trying to figure out and tell since I was 15. Suddenly, a sponsored story I saw on Instagram inspired something else entirely.
The sponsored story was from Mind, a leading mental health charity in England & Wales. They were promoting their Stream For Mind campaign for creators, streamers, and gamers to fundraise for them. I've done a few things to raise money for charities before: running in the Sport Relief Miles challenge in 2010, shaving off all my hair for Rape Crisis England & Wales in 2014, and collected money for Christian Aid regularly at the methodist church I attended growing up.
While my stance on religion changed and my physical disabilities became debilitating, my belief in helping others when able didn't change. If anything it was strengthened by the injustices of needless austerity measures imposed by successive UK governments since 2010, the continued prominence of bigoted people with platforms, and my eternal quest for knowledge.
When I saw the sponsored Stream For Mind story come up during an otherwise normal scrolling session, I had to know more. I read their Instagram posts and website page dedicated to it. It was a light bulb moment - a charity challenge I can do from home without a guaranteed chronic pain flare up! I'm not a gamer nor a creator who regularly streams so I hyperfixated for hours to figure out what I'd need to do to fully prepare and how to pull off a writing/chat stream. I thought about when to do this stream, and it didn't take long to decide to do it on the release date of 'The Midwife in the Middle' - Monday 28th July 2025!
I set up a JustGiving page, shared the news around my social media accounts, and told the people in my life. According to Mind 1 in 4 people experience a mental health problem every year so I did an 8 hour stream on Twitch. I planned topics to discuss and things to do during the livestream and prepared myself as best I could. It was a lovely experience with up to 10 viewers at once, a live chat that was steadily active, and plentiful support for a good cause. I raised £210 in total for Mind and the interactive brainstorming segment was creatively inspiring.
That couldn't be it for me. I couldn't utilise the extra attention my tiny social media platforms get during book release dates to do good just one time. I knew in my gut that I wanted to do it again for another charity, maybe even do it every time I release a book. Why not?
The next charity livestream challenge will take place on the release date of 'The Midwife in the Spotlight' (Saturday 5th September 2026) to raise money for the dog charity Happy Doggo. The JustGiving page is currently live so please donate and/or share the page to spread the word!
