Why people trust YourStory

Video transcript: Hi. My year story was a gift from my daughter for my 69th birthday over a year ago. It took a year to complete, and although not something I would have particularly wanted to do, it's something which I'm now delighted that has been done. It took me back through my own life and took on a journey of its own. And although I did it in fits and starts, your story team were always there to help me. There were times when I thought I was going too far and I was able to edit it. But at the end of the day, I'm delighted to have something there for posterity, and particularly for children and grandchildren, which was the reason why my daughter had given it to me in the first place. I would certainly recommend it to anybody who's wishing to document what they've done. If we don't, it just disappears. Good luck.

Video transcript: Hi. My grandchildren gave me the gift at Christmas of writing my memoirs. I was very filled with trepidation because I thought, gosh, I don't know really what to write. I don't know how to start. But then the questions came and my memory was prodded and I decided what I was going to put in. And I was surprised at how many stories I remembered about my childhood, about my growing up, and about, in many ways, my unique childhood. So I wrote this all down, and with the help of Alison, with a few glitches and searching through my photographs, which was another lovely thing to do because that, again, prompted memories. I then had the book published. And the thing that I found really quite heartwarming is seeing the children read it and come to me and asking me questions, and sometimes a few tears, sometimes lots of laughter about things. And I have found the whole experience an extremely heartwarming and satisfying experience. When I talk about my children, my grandchildren, I'm talking about adults, and they loved it.

Video transcript: Foreign hi, my name is Ren and as a gift on my 87th birthday, members of my family gave me membership of your story. It has to be said that it was a complete surprise and a very daunting prospect. As the written word has never been my forte. They asked that I should write about my life so they might share my experiences and perhaps gain something from the lessons I have learned along the way. It was also the opportunity to record some of the history of my family, which they might wish to refer to in the future. I spent the next 18 months on the project, but I have to point out that during that time I put it to one side several times. This enabled me to gather my thoughts and to make a fresh start for the next chapter. I freely admit that when recording the good and the not so good times, there was laughter and tears within myself. But as it turned out, that's life in many ways. Despite my apprehension at the start, I found that I enjoyed the journey that my family set me on. I found it a worthwhile experience and I was really pleased with the final book. Indeed, everyone seems to want a copy, which I find very rewarding. It would be remiss of me not to mention the assistance and advice Alison gave me along the way. It was invaluable and much appreciated. A real star if ever there was one. In conclusion, I would say that if you have the opportunity, as I did, then give it a go.

Video transcript: My heart sank slightly when my daughter told me she'd sign me up to your story because I'm not very techy. But it's all been much easier than I expected, and when I ever had a problem, I contacted your story and I got help. They're well used to dealing with people who are not very good on the tech front. My advice is not to agonize for too long as to what to include and what not to include, but to just get on with it. Yes, maybe I'd spend another thousand hours on might be a better book, but it's quite good enough and I'm mighty pleased to have done it. A special mention of Alison, who was extremely helpful on several occasions. I think we all story is brilliant.

Video transcript: I'm so, so pleased that we brought this gift for my dad. It's just beautiful. He's led a really full, fascinating life. And as a family, we were trying to work out what the best way of capturing that for him in a gift would be. And this is just perfect. The process was super, super simple. It was lots of fun as well. So basically, my dad was emailed a question every week asking him a different question about sort of different categories of his life. If you prefer, you can ask these questions to be sent to you within, like, a set time frame. But he chose to do it over a year and had lots of fun answering them. There was loads of things that were pulled out as well, which we never would have thought to ask him. So the end result is just incredible. And it's something that me and my family and my dad are always going to really cherish. So we absolutely are thrilled that we decided to gift this for him as his present. We all love it. So thank you so, so much.