Darren Roberts

A little about me, hmmmmm, where to start?
Ok, so, I'm a married father of 6, yes SIX, two grown up kids from failed experiment 1.0 and four from experiment 2.0. This experiment is going strong with my ring finger being dressed for a decade, come this November. If anyone deserves an award, it’s my wife.
I've recently re-entered the work environment as a Private Health Claims Assessor after a substantial period off, having gotten myself one of them rare immune illnesses in 2011. Formerly a planning enforcement officer, I was extremely fortunate in being one of the annoying people that enjoyed their job. Alas, it wasn't to be, and I found myself being poked and prodded by all manner of specialists to determine how I got the illness they call Sarcoidosis. 5 years and two kids later I tried to re-enter the work environment, but I wasn't ready and caused myself more harm that even surgery wasn't able to cure, so I found myself back on the gurney being poked and prodded. Strong medication and only being able to carry out the simplest of physical duties, like ironing, my previous activity filled life was a distant memory. Luckily, I'm not a horse so I wasn't shot, but I did have to reconsider my potential career to be a desk-based cowboy.
At the end of 2019 - and another two kids later - I was actively looking to get a desk-based job, but I struggled, even though none of them said so, I fear that my illness may have influenced their decisions. Anyhow, I persisted to look and was hopeful for the new year until a small event called Covid-19 happened, and people with my affliction were confined to our homes. I can tell you that it was a tough year with 6 of us stuck indoors for what felt like a decade, but in reality, was just a year. I feel blessed to have a large family, and our (meant mainly my wife Hayley) life is challenging with red tape due to my illness and two of our sone having autism. The covid change in routine was difficult for them, not only at the start, but secondly when schools re-opened after a year.
I do remember when Hayley called their school to say that she was keeping the kids at home when Covid was reported to be 20 minutes away in the next town, and the school secretary told her “Ey oop, dunt worry about it, it’s a full 20 minutes away oop road, be reit down ere.” (Poor Yorkshire accent, sorry) My wife simply replied, “Oh I see. So, a virus that’s travelled thousands of miles from China will have the decency to stop up the road. How kind of it.” Needless to say, that stopped any further rebuttals.
Being restricted from job-hunting, I decided to put pen to paper. My times ironing had afforded me time to let my mind wonder and wonder it did. Some of the medication I was taking, namely pain medication, guided my thoughts to some bizarre places, I started to take note of those places and one day I scribbled them down. Three years later, and substantial re-writes and edits, I’m now ready to release it to the world. I hope that I’m not embarrassing myself, but you know what they say, ‘No risk, no reward’.