Write a poem about your experience of aniridia, then send it to us and you could win shopping vouchers worth £40!

Join us in taking part in the international poetry competition to celebrate the first world Aniridia Day on 21 June. The goal is to spread understanding of what it is like dealing with aniridia.

Anyone can write a poem, including: patients, parents, siblings or other relatives, friends, doctors, teachers and other professionals. The poem can be about any aspect of aniridia.

The poem can be any type such as haiku or rhyming couplets. For inspiration you could start with an acrostic where the start of each line begins with the letters of ‘aniridia’.

Prize

The author of the poem judged to be the best in the UK and Ireland will win £20 of shopping vouchers.

We will pass this poem on to the international judges. The poem they decide is the best in the world will receive about £20 (€25) of shopping vouchers – kindly provided by Aniridia Europe.

So you could win twice and get £40!

How to enter

The poem can be submitted in any format including: electronic text, photograph of a piece of paper, audio or video recording. Include your name, address and ideally a picture of the author too.

Submit your poem to the UK & Ireland competition by emailing poems@aniridia.org.uk by the end of Sunday 28 May 2017 but the sooner the better. We will announce the winner in the first week of June.

Unless you ask us not to, we will put your poem on our Facebook/Twitter/blog to share your experience and encourage other people to write poems of their own. Please re-share all these with your contacts. We can publish the poem anonymously if you wish.

The UK & Ireland judges will be three of the Aniridia Network UK Trustees: Katie, Emily and Martin.

The international winner and their poem will be announced on the Aniridia Day Facebook group and Twitter on 21 June 2017. Please join/follow these now.

So get your creative juices flowin’ and start writing your poem!