A Humanist Dad

05/12/2025

5 December is International Neuroblastoma Awareness Day! You can help raise awareness (as well as call for better research and support) by sharing a post from Solving Kids' Cancer.

Two of the factors that make this such a devastating childhood cancer are the difficulty of early diagnosis (70% of cases are already metastatic when discovered) and how the survival rate if children do relapse.

Fortunately both of these can be improved with further research since my son's diagnosis Solving Kids' Cancer have been with us all along. He's been enrolled in a trial that could lead to blood test based diagnosis, and thanks to SKC (and our incredible fundraising community) he's been enrolled in another trial medication (DFMO now available on the NHS) to reduce his risk of relapse.

💙 Today is International Neuroblastoma Awareness Day!

Join us in raising awareness, supporting research, and standing with families affected by neuroblastoma.

Every voice matters. Every action counts.

This day isn't just about awareness. It's about believing in better, pushing science forward, and standing as one global community determined to raise the bar – for research, for care, and for hope.

Because progress doesn't happen by chance. It happens together. Together we can make a difference.

03/12/2025

A great conversation on The Family Skeptical podcast. Thinking intentionally about holiday traditions and reinventing them to fit our families and our values is such a fun activity.

This episode got me in the Christmas spirit and the talk of gingerbread houses reminded of one of my favourite Christmas memories: building a gingerbread train with my son who absolutely loved it and was then outraged to hear it was for sharing.

New episode up. We talk atheist Christmas with Betsy DeVille. What kind of traditions do you want to build as a family? How does one handle the Jesus of it all? To Santa or not to Santa? And to truly finish in the holiday mood, Betsy gives some amazing gingerbread house tips.

02/12/2025

I'm proud to share this statement on behalf of Camp Quest UK following Girlguiding's decision to stop accepting trans girls.

Text copied below as I can't directly share it.

We’re profoundly disappointed with Girlguiding UK’s announcement that they will no longer be accepting trans girls. Despite stating that this change has been forced on them (by an expansive interpretation of the recent Supreme Court ruling) and claiming to continue to stand with the trans community, the message of exclusion and discrimination this sends is inescapable.

Members of the Camp Quest UK community have a range of feelings on Scouting and Girlguiding -including experiences of both inclusion and exclusion - but we are united in solidarity with those hurt by this announcement.

The Camp Quest movement was first founded almost thirty years ago, partly in response to the Boy Scouts of America’s discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ and nonreligious members.

Camp Quest UK will always be a radically inclusive organisation. Our 2025 constitution enshrines recognition of ‘the particular historic contribution that atheist, neurodivergent, neuroq***r, and q***r people have made to the development of the Camp Quest ethos and movement in the UK and beyond.’

Camp Quest UK will always do everything in our power to ensure campers and all other participants in our community are welcomed and treated with dignity or respect, including our trans and non-binary friends.

28/11/2025

I’m excited to share the news that Camp Quest UK - the secular summer camp for critical thinking kids - is relaunching with a family camp in 2026.

I’m excited to share the news that Camp Quest UK – the secular summer camp for critical thinking kids – is relaunching with a family camp in 2026.

23/11/2025

I'm continuing to explore the connections between neurodivergence and humanism, and their impacts on my parenting and inclusive community building. My conversation on the Embrace the Void podcast a couple of months ago was a lot of fun and set up a lot more thinking/reflection.
https://buff.ly/36jhxh7

19/11/2025

'Humanist, humanist-curious or humanist friendly' - 'Welcoming all who welcome all' - 'Kindness not creed' - How can we describe secular communities’ inclusion, in ways that convey their distinctive values? https://buff.ly/X1Vd05Q

11/11/2025

For children raised in non-religious households, understanding humanism can provide them with a better context to relate to religious and culturally diverse peers, and understand how their family’s values fit within a wider tapestry of belief. I'm sharing this post from last month (in my A-Z of Humanist Parenting series) as I read up on the curriculum review and humanism being included in an reformed RE subject.

For children raised in non-religious households, understanding humanism can provide them with a better context to relate to religious and culturally diverse peers, and understand how their family’s…

09/11/2025

I've been very busy on Camp Quest UK project work this week, and I can't wait to share more including the announcement teased in this piece. In this interview Katie from Camp Quest US shared lessons from their experiences: how they create a unique secular community for young people and what their approach can offer adults.

As Camp Quest UK rebuilds, the chair of Camp Quest’s US board shared lessons from their experiences: how they create a unique secular community for young people and what their approach can offer ad…

08/11/2025

Last month I wrote about podcasts and how the different ways we engage with media - habitually, casually, or irregularly - offer different lessons for community builders.

Habitual audiences are primarily drawn to the community and want to make participating part of their routine. Casual audiences want to be informed or entertained. They are open to engaging with communities but at their own level, and need to be sold on specific topics.

Like binging a series, engagement with humanist communities can often be intense but short lived.

We can engage with different media habitually, casually or irregularly. If we engage in communities in similar ways, then podcast audiences have important lessons for organisers.

07/11/2025

Our local group held a discussion event on the role of humanism within families, and how it might inform non-religious approaches to parenting. In this event report, I share lessons learned and ideas - including discussion prompts - for groups considering a similar event.

Our local group held a discussion event on the role of humanism within families, and how it might inform non-religious approaches to parenting.

06/11/2025

Nothing to see here. Just a dad serving a meal on the floor of his child’s hospital room. A meal a friend kindly dropped off after hours because there was nowhere open for parents to get food.

We talk about dignity in our health system. But dignity is not just medicine and machines. Dignity is the human experience around them.

Dignity is being able to eat at a table not the floor. To rest in a bed not two chairs pushed together. To shower. To breathe. To not have to choose between caring for your child and keeping your life from collapsing.

When your child is critically ill, your world shrinks to that hospital room. You don’t think about yourself. You forget to.
Your only job is to hold on. But holding on shouldn’t require parents to lose their dignity along the way.

That’s why we exist, to be your voice. Not because parents want special treatment but because dignity shouldn’t disappear the moment your child becomes sick.

Parliament can change this. The system can treat parents as humans not afterthoughts.

🦋 Dignity is not a luxury. It is the most basic form of care.



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