Hi readers.

For the next few weeks, we are going to be looking at different kinds of relationships. We’ll be talking about things like friendships, love, Valentines and appreciation. There may be more, we’ll have to see.

Why do we want to write about this? Well, we feel that relationships are fundamental to our lives, in fact they are the pillars in our life, holding us up.

We’ve both experienced life with no friendships and it’s like going to the dark side with Darth Vadar. We felt lonely, isolated and like we were wearing a mask. We could feel so low that it was such a bad feeling inside.

Then, when we got friends, it was like a magical transformation. Having friends feels like having angels around you. Our friends make us feel protected, happy and safe.

The way I, Adam, feel about it is that friends energise me and help me believe in myself - that I can achieve things. On my own it feels like I am climbing a mountain without any harnesses or safety nets. No fun at all.

Without friends, we don’t know where we’d be. So, as it’s so important to us, we wanted to spend a bit of time talking to you about the different kinds of relationships we have, as well as what it takes to be a friend and the people who help us along the way.

We’ll also talk a bit about love and what it means to us. There are different kinds of love and one we’ll be looking at is romantic love. We won’t say any more for now except please keep reading over the next few weeks and do write in, as we’d love to hear your thoughts too!

nAdam and William are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset.