Charities I love
Dear readers,
Here are four charities I think are absolutely brilliant. They do good work all over the world, and are all focused on healthcare, which I think we can all get behind.
I believe good healthcare shouldn't depend on where you were born or how much money you have. All four of these charities work to make that true, mostly in parts of the world where people have very little.
I've picked charities I think any reader could feel happy supporting with me, whatever their background or politics. They're about doctors and nurses helping people who need it.
Heart surgery for children
Chain of Hope
Chain of Hope arranges life-saving heart operations for children in poorer and war-torn countries, where there's often nobody who can do the surgery. They also train local doctors and nurses, so those countries can one day care for their own children's hearts.
My book ‘(Probably) the Greatest Love Story Ever Told’ has a young girl with a heart condition, which is a big part of why this one means so much to me.
Free emergency medical care
Doctors Without Borders Médecins Sans Frontières
When there's an earthquake, an outbreak or a war, Doctors Without Borders sends in doctors and nurses to help. They work in more than 70 countries, their care is free, and they treat everyone who needs it, whoever they are.
I love that they go where hardly anyone else will. They're very, very brave people.
Giving people their sight back
Sightsavers
Most blindness in the world can be prevented or cured. Sightsavers treats people in some of the poorest parts of the world, and has carried out more than 10 million cataract operations. Someone who couldn't see goes home able to see their family again.
I find that SO moving. A short operation, and a whole life changes.
Extra help for the NHS
NHS Charities Together
I think the NHS is one of the most incredible things any country has ever built. Free healthcare for everyone, from the day you're born.
NHS Charities Together is the national charity for the NHS. It works with more than 220 hospital and health charities around the UK, paying for the extras the NHS budget doesn't stretch to, like support for patients and staff.
This is my one UK charity. Everything else here works around the world, but I couldn't leave the NHS out.
About Suzy K Quinn
Suzy K Quinn writes book club fiction and murder mystery series, and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is a bestselling author in the US, UK and Germany, and will soon, very possibly, have written more books than she has read.
A former journalist, Suzy wrote for years before her first book was published at 30, and went on to hit no.1 in the UK comedy charts, with two books reaching the Amazon top 10. Bob and Shirley marks her move into cozy crime, inspired by a lifetime of English village life, pub lunches and an encyclopaedic knowledge of puddings.
Suzy lives in Wivenhoe, Essex, with her husband and two daughters.