The Baynhams

There is a fund-raising initiative called the 40hr Famine. It is a charity that encourages teenage kids to give up something for 40 hours in return for sponsorship from family and friends. It should come with a serious health warning. This fund-raiser puts family members at risk of heart attack or even death. I'll tell you how.

Sian decided to give up talking. Not an easy thing for a 12 year old. She was communicating in hand gestures and facial expression. She came home from a friends house wearing casual clothes and with her school uniform in a bag. When I spotted the bag on the ground I tipped the contents into the top-loader washing machine that had started 5 minutes before. She went to walk upstairs to bed and I reminded her to "park" her iPod touch in the charger downstairs (No Internet access allowed in the bedrooms for cyber safety etc etc) Sian nodded then looked at me and pointed at the empty clothes bag. My interpretation? That I had tipped the iPod into the washing machine along with the clothes. Cue me screaming and running into the laundry, opening the lid and submerging my upper body in the suds frantically seaching for expensive electrical gadget that she had saved so hard for. All unnecessary because Sians nod and shrug was meant to convey that the iPod was already parked and she just wanted to know where to put the empty bag...

That's the risk of heart attack explained.