Northamptonshire sisters amazed to get more than 300 subscribers to their 'good news' newsletter

More than 300 people so far have signed up to a daily newsletter full of good news set up by two sisters from Northamptonshire.

Bethan and Holly Botterill started the Some Good News last month to spread some positivity during the coronavirus outbreak.

The siblings from Bugbrooke had low expectations but it quickly took off after it was featured in a Buzzfeed article and on BBC News Northampton.

"It has been amazing. We have had people from all over the world contact us saying that what we are doing is really good which was extremely unexpected," they said.

"A lot of people have messaged us saying that they really need something like this right now, so it is nice to know that what we are doing is helping people feel a bit better about the world and what is happening."

Like most young adults, Bethan, 19, and Holly, 22, said they spent a lot of time on social media and felt everything was focused on the Covid-19 pandemic.

So they decided to combat the negative news, which can be depressing, with a newsletter of five positive stories from the internet that subscribers receive every weekday.

"We wanted to create something where people could go to find stories which might distract them from what was happening in the world and hopefully make them smile," they said.

Bethan, who is a graphic design student at the University of Lincoln, said the penguins that got to explore their own aquarium when it was shut to the public was her favourite story.

While Holly, who is on a marketing grad scheme, said the care home which created a human version of Hungry Hippos was her's.

"We only expected to get 10 or 20 people to subscribe, mostly our friends and family, but people we hardly knew started sharing our Facebook post which meant our email started going further and further afield," they said.

"When we hit 50 subscribers we couldn’t believe how many people actually wanted to receive something that we had put together so it is phenomenal that we have reached this number.

"Right now we don’t have any targets as we had reached the ones we set for ourselves, we just hope we can bring a little bit of positivity to at least one person."

To sign up, click here.