Stories to save lives

Speaking with Eastern Daily Press, Robert reminisced of how he cuddled up with his dad, eager to hear the latest adventures of a rabbit family living in nearby woods.

Bob Smith created the stories for his only son, Robert. And as he recounted the tales, he also recorded them.

Eventually the old magnetic tapes were stored away and almost forgotten. But when Robert retired last year, he finally found time to sort through his attic, and rediscovered the recordings.

He was thrilled to find they were in excellent condition and as each was transferred to compact disc. 

“For 45 minutes I was with my father again. There were tears of joy!” he said. “As soon as each story started, I remembered it as clearly as if I had been read them just yesterday. It shows how receptive a five-year-old’s mind is, whereas now I struggle to remember what day of the week it is!"

Bob lived until he was 96, but as magnetic recording tape and tape recorders were replaced with cassettes, then CDs, and eventually digital media, the story tapes were stored away and almost consigned to family folklore.

Now Robert hopes many more children can enjoy the stories.

“I have lovingly brought the stories up to date and back to life, and have published them, mainly for the purpose of sharing them with my grandchildren and more widely, but also in memory of my late father,” said Robert.

“Each of my father’s stories contained a moral or lesson for me to learn as I grew up. I have ended each of my stories with a short paragraph as to what lessons have been learned by the bunny in that story,” said Robert.

And his grandchildren are as mesmerised as he was.

The book, 'My Bunny Rabbit Adventures', is dedicated to Robert’s four grandchildren – six-year-old Millie, three-year-old Tia, one-year-old Archie, and the grandson who died of meningitis aged just 18 months.

“I lost a grandson needlessly to meningitis in 2014, and have decided to donate profits made from the sales of my book to the research of this awful child-killing disease,” said Robert. “He had been a healthy little boy who had learned to walk and was saying his first words.”

But when he fell ill, meningitis was not immediately diagnosed.

“The 12 hour period lost until he was readmitted as an emergency was catastrophic,” said Robert. “His life support was turned off just 24 hours later. Antibiotics kill the disease and would have saved him, but they must be given early, which sadly for my grandson was not the case."

“The preventable loss of a child or grandchild is the very worst thing that can happen to a parent or grandparent. In the 21st century, death shouldn’t happen because of an infection. But it does, and it is the kind of thing you read about in the newspapers and think, that’s awful and terrible, but it will never happen to us. But it did. And as a result, I wanted to do something to help prevent a reoccurrence, if only to save one child and their family from having to go through what my family has had to endure.”

'My Bunny Rabbit Adventures' is available in paperback for £17.99, eBook for £3.99 and audiobook for £2.99, from Amazon, Authorhouse publishing and Robert’s website, www.bunnyrabbitstories.com.

All profits will go to the UK’s largest meningitis charity, Meningitis Now.