A mum from Deal who kept a diary during the first few weeks of the coronavirus restrictions, has had her work published and hopes sales will support a mental health charity.

Fiona Sinclair, who lives in Upper Deal with her daughter Lily Burman, 14, started writing about their

shared experiences of life in lockdown as the pandemic unfolded.

The idea grew from reading a friend’s online diary about his experience of being quarantined in Italy and it inspired her to put pen to paper.

She said: “Italy was nearly three weeks ahead of the UK and this unbelievable situation was becoming frighteningly real.

"When I started writing, it was just an outlet to help make sense of how abnormal life had become - literally overnight.

"I never imagined our lockdown project would end up getting published.”

Their book, Life in Lockdown, features illustrations by Lily, a Year 9 grammar pupil, who was attending weekly art lessons at The Drawing Rooms of Deal before the restrictions took hold.

Ms Sinclair added: “We were spending so much time together with everything being closed, and with little structure to our lives, having a joint venture gave us both a focus.”

Life in Lockdown is published by Four Peacocks Publishing – a Deal based publishing company set up by Joseph Harris and Rebecca Murphy, creators of the Four Peacocks children’s books.

From the sale of each copy, 50p will be donated to Young Minds UK, through Work for Good, a fundraising platform helping small businesses donate to charity.

Michelle Kerrigan, Development Manager at Young Minds said: “We’re incredibly grateful that a portion of the sales of Life in Lockdown will be donated to Young Minds.

"The money raised is needed now more than ever in our fight for the mental health of children and young people across the UK.”

Life in Lockdown costs £6.99 (plus P&P) and is available online by clicking here.

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