One of my teachers in primary school originally introduced me to penpalling. I lived in England and our enterprising teacher Miss Coates had been in contact with a school in Cleveland, Ohio and showed us a list of prospective penpals she had been sent.

I'd always loved "writing things down" and playing word games, so this new game involving new friends really appealed to me. I chose Nancy and loved the leters and photos we exchanged.

Shortly after that our local chemist asked if I would write to a friend's daughter in Austria, so Inge was my new penpal, and I found out interesting details about her life.

I gained a pal from Nantes, France called Josette through doing French lessons at school. We practised writing in each others' languages. We weren't very good at it, but we had a lot of fun via our mailboxes.

So my first pals were given to me without my having to look for them.

I began to meet people during holidays in England with whom I kept in touch. Every trip became a challenge to make a new friend. I was addicted to penpalling!

As I grew older, studied, married and had a son, I lost contact with most of those penpals from my youth, but not all, as we moved house to a town in Wales where one I had met on a previous vacation lived. We are still firm friends after 50 years!

We moved to Australia 30 years ago, and I still keep in touch with friends back in England, but I can't call them "pen-pals". They are "old friends". Some don't write often, some do. One has been my good friend since we were 4 years old: our mothers were friends, too.

Even though I was not technically penpalling, I still remembered the pleasure it had given me and wondered if I would ever have time to resume this lovely hobby.

Tragically my son was killed at 18 years of age, so my world turned upside-down and I didn't even want to be in it. It took time to learn to cope with the reality of what had happened, but gradually I was able to start work again (I'm a librarian) and my husband and I began to make a life for the two of us.

I saw an advertisement for IPF in a magazine and wondered if I was ready to reach out for penpals again. I began tentatively, subscribing to a few clubs including the "Worldlinks" newspaper which I believe was the forerunner on Inky Trail News. Well, I haven't looked back!

Many of my pals live in the U.S. and Canada and I have been lucky enough to travel there and meet some of them, which has definitely strengthened the bonds between us.

I do feel that penpalling is often a sort of therapy for some people to help cope with their life's problems. At least that's how I came to restart penpalling in my later years. It has worked very well, and I hope my "listening" to my pals worries has helped them too.

It's such a wonferful vehicle for friendship and mutual understanding in this diverse world.

Nancy, Josette, Inge - if you read this and recognise yourself I'd love to get back in touch!

So that's my story, an ongoing one, I hope. Thanks to all my penpals, past and present for enriching my life!