Check him out: Steve Neill.

Hey folks.  It’s rare for me to ask you to do anything, but today is a little different – and for good reason.  I’d like to draw your attention to a lovely bloke called Steve Neill.  Now you may think, who?  Well let me give you a very brief run down on the man.
He’s a model maker and special effects make up artist extraordinaire and is proper old school.  His career stems decades as he’s worked on all manner of films and tv shows that you’ve no doubt heard of; Ghost Busters, Star Trek, The Thing and even Honey, I blew up the kids, okay – we can forgive him for that one, but his resumé is almost endless and quite impressive to boot.  Over the last couple of years, he’s been keeping a blog, in fact he started it around the same time that I started mine.  The only difference between us is that his blog is purposely dedicated to his build projects – he’s extremely prolific in what he’s done and what he’s achieved in that time… which kind of puts me to shame really.
You can find his blog here:  http://steveneill.wordpress.com/
The unfortunate way that he keeps his blog is that he doesn’t organise it at all.  To be honest, it’s a bloody mess if you are looking for a specific project, however it’s all there in chronological order.  Despite this, it’s well worth going to the start and having a damned good read.  As time progresses, you’ll notice that he swaps from the written word to videos – those are amazing as he can walk you through his techniques in real-time, as it were.  So if you want to learn something or just sit back in awe as I do when I visit his blog on a daily basis, then please do, check him out.  He’s addictive, I’ve even found myself with Steve Neill withdrawal symptoms when he hasn’t added something for a couple of days.
Recently his wife Gilly has been diagnosed with cancer, two types in fact and very naturally, it’s taking its toll on her.  I’d just like to quote the message that Steve put on his website, if I may.

Help Gilly fight her Cancer

As many of you have heard by now my wife Gilly has two types of cancer.

She is putting up a hard fight against it. As we  have both lost our healthcare a few years ago Medi Cal is covering everything. Far from it. In addition she is unable to work. I continue to work but it’s not enough to keep up with the bills and we are falling far behind. Please help us by offering us work in the fields I’m qualified for or please Donate today.

I wish that I could help them financially, but I just can’t and I don’t need to bore you with my own personal worries, but if I can help to raise awareness of their situation, then perhaps that could be seen as some form of assistance in a very small way.  You don’t just have to give money out of the kindness of your heart, you could always commission Steve to build you something, at least you will get a physical object in return for your money – which in turn will help them through their hard times.
If you are interested, then please visit this page (below) to make a donation or use the contacts page to get in touch with Steve and commission him to make you some wonderous artifact of your personal choice, it could be anything – he has a lot to offer.
http://www.sneillfx.com/page1 to donate.
http://www.sneillfx.com/page28 to contact the guy.
Please help to spread the word if you can.  Look, I don’t know the guy either, but he and his lovely wife needs our support and perhaps if we group together, we can provide that and get them through these difficult times.
There we have it then.  This will probably be the first and last time that I ever ask a favour of this sort here.  Thanks for reading.