A stethoscope that once belonged to someone else. A folded drawing a child pressed into your hand on the ward. A sentence a patient said years ago that you still hear when you lock the car at night.

This month we invite you to write to three words: What We Carry.

It might be an object, kept in a pocket or a bag or a drawer you rarely open. It might be guilt, or gratitude, or a question you never got to ask. It might be a story you brought home from clinic, or one you carried into it as a patient, a parent or a carer.

Write whatever these words bring up for you. You do not need to have published before, and you do not need to call yourself a writer. You need only something true to say about what you carry.

At the end of the month, we will gather the pieces that move us into one collection, published here, so they can be read together: many voices on common ground.

How to take part

• Send your piece by 29 November to narrativesmedicineheart@gmail.com, with the subject line "In Common: What We Carry".
• Up to 300 words, one piece per person.
• Tell us how you'd like to be named (full name, initials, or unnamed) and add a short line about who you are.
• If you write about a real patient, protect their privacy: ask their consent, or change the details that would identify them.

We read everything, and we reply.