Where would you be if you could?
A map, a mirrored box, hundreds of messages, so many voices. A journey has starting across the UK, connecting those now absent with those who stand at their place.
Lockdown was a realisation of what it’s like to be shut inside and cut off from everyday life — an experience many have now moved on from and would rather forget.
For over 2 million people in the UK living with ME or Long Covid, that reality has never ended. Life-limiting symptoms often leave them housebound or bedbound, cut off from the lives they once led. Unseen and unheard in daily life, they have become invisible by their absence.
I would be here if I could, is a nationwide project taking their messages to the places they love but can no longer reach.
Through a digital map and the journey of The Mirrorbox, we are amplifying these unheard voices and marking their absence. It’s a chance to be seen and heard — and to explore the potential for wider connections through the shared love, memory, and experience of place.
I feel a little more part of the wider world that we miss so much.
— K
The Messages
Dog walks through the autumn leaves. Sitting in the stands at a football match. That cafe with an amazing view.
We all have places that mean something extra to us. Places that often we didn’t appreciate just how important they were until you can’t get there any more.
Find out about the messages that have been sent to the project.
The Mirrorbox
From parks to mountain tops, shopping centres to opera houses, the Mirrorbox is on a journey across the UK.
Where it stops is determined by the places people have chosen to leave their messages — they are the project’s co-creators.
Step inside and hear a message from someone who picked that place — somewhere they love but can no longer visit.
You will be invited to write them a postcard back.
