The Old Armchair was written by one of the Stories2Connect researchers in collaboration with a young person participating with the project. The material for the story was collected through a series of interviews and events where the writer observed and talked with ‘Alex’ about his life and future hopes and dreams. This story was written with a teen audience in mind and may also be of interest to education and social work professionals. This story was illustrated by Laura Cross.

Alex manages to pull off the most outrageous outfits, somehow always managing to look cool and stylish. At first glance, a person might think that Alex had it all. But life has not always been quite so straightforward and there have been days when Alex found it hard to believe that he deserved to exist at all. Alex knows only too well how it feels to be vulnerable and how much it helps to talk to someone. Now he’s hoping he can be that person for somebody else, and is hoping to bump into her very soon…