After the birth of my little boy, I became poorly and needed support from Perinatal Mental Health services. I was diagnosed with OCD and Postnatal depression and even had to spend 8 weeks in hospital, in a Mother and Baby Psychiatric Unit.
I feel lucky that I was able to access amazing support from the NHS Coventry Perinatal Mental Health Team, NCT Coventry Branch, family and friends.
This is not the case for lots of new mums who struggle to access support and are too afraid to seek help due to the stigma and oppression of having a mental illness.
I have had a really difficult year and there were times when at my lowest I didn't think that life was worth living and it could ever get better again.
I feel privileged to be in the position now, where I am going to run a 5k and hopefully help other mums by doing so.
I'm not fully better, but my journey now has more sunshine than clouds!

On Sunday 21st May 2017 at 12.45pm I am running the Inflatable 5K at Wolverhampton Racecourse, WV6 0PE.
This might not seem like a big challenge for most people but having been so poorly and had horrible weight gain from medication it's a big personal challenge for me.
You can follow my feed on Instagram as I prepare for the big day!

Please sponsor me to help
Maternal OCD http://www.maternalocd.org
Maria Bavetta and Diana Wilson co-founded Maternal OCD to raise the profile of OCD amongst health professionals and to provide easily accessible resources for mothers to enable a sustainable recovery.

PND and Me http://www.pndandme.co.uk/
This project has been set up by Rosey Adams who hosts PND hour on Twitter. I have taken part in this over the last year and it has been a brilliant source of online support. I've made some great online friends too!
Rosey provides 'Little books of hope' They are sent out in the post to mum's who are struggling with Postnatal Depression. The money I raise will help go towards getting some more books published.