Welcome to ACES WEEKLY Volume 52, Week Six!

Friends,  A word to say this week about one of our short stories, Aliki's Smile, but first a word about Graphic Medicine, because it's a grand cause that has relevance to it and is one you should find out about if you are yet unknowing!  For those who are unknowing, Graphic Medicine is an organisation that was started a while back with the bright idea of pushing all kinds of events and articles promoting the use of illustration and strip art to make health matters clearer to patients and all those others who might be concerned with them or dealing with them ; to show them the reality of their condition and show them how best to cope with it ; and also to show the value of art and strip illustration as a therapy that can allow the expression of thoughts and feelings that might otherwise not be expressed as well by those in the systems of the health services.  Matt Barrell, the author of the story we feature here in this volume, is a past patient of our health services and, as a creator here of great strip storytelling, has expressed his situation inside it in this week's Aces Weekly with a biographical tale of an instance of life during an imperfect time of a life.  It's a story that may not have been told with the express purpose of therapy as its end result, but it certainly makes clear the feelings it expresses, and willl lllustrate to those who don't know what Matt knows some small part of what he's seen through his experiences in a very different world to the one in which most of us contentedly live and take for granted.  Count your blessings, everyone... : )  And keep staying safe!

 Remember, we ALWAYS want to hear from you!  Ask questions, talk to us all, post to our blog, and see us over at facebook.com/acesweekly. Or send mail to [email protected] to see it right here, whatever you want to say!