Due to extensive workplace sexual harassment and bullying, I have unfortunately been suffering with long term mental health issues and have been unable to work back in a 'proper job' since I left Australia in August 2017.

However, I have ensured that I have spent my time working as an unpaid volunteer for both the British Heart Foundation and the Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust (the latter involving 5 separate projects / areas!!)

I have been doing unpaid talks and running / helping out with various steering and support groups, working alongside carers, service users, NHS staff and medical specialists.

I have also recently designed a new business called Silent Fire, with the launch of a whole range of hand made jewellery coming soon - Sunday 22nd April from 11am - 4pm - 'We are Balsall Heath Festival' in Moseley. I have had to pay a lot of money up front to secure a stand and to purchase all the materials to hand make my jewellery range. I have also spent several hours doing this - again unpaid! I will donate HALF the proceeds to a nominated mental health charity, likely Birmingham / Solihull MIND as they have been so helpful and informative during my recovery. Papyrus UK are also doing some fantastic work in Suicide Prevention and I cannot praise the Samaritans highly enough - I must have called them at least 20 times last year.

I am professionally singing on and recording a song called 'Silent Fire' soon with a close friend; this is about how mental illness can devastate someone's life if left untreated and often leaves the individual as a shadow or shell of their former self.

I will also aim to set up a website (with help hopefully as I have no clue what to do!). I want to incorporate many aspects of my recovery into this space such as the huge impact that Moseley Yoga, the NHS Recovery College and the Zinnia Central Home Treatment Team have had on my recovery - including all the AMAZING salt of the earth individuals who I met along the way :) Many of whom I am honoured to now call close friends.

I will write blogs about my experiences utilising the mental health services across Birmingham, UK and compare those to the services offered in Melbourne, Australia.

I feel that all of my time is spent trying to help people especially those with mental health difficulties, as I want to share my experiences and inspire hope in others. I am very passionate about this!!!!

When I was suicidal, I lost all of my hope in myself and this life....I remember lying there in my bed thinking that I was in so much mental and physical torture that each breathe hurt me.

I once was told by a senior Psychiatrist - 'Rebecca, you are not a passive actor in this life'....that was the day my life turned around (as recent as this February!) and I began to fight EVEN harder than I ever had before to get my whole world back.

Thanks to my incredibly supportive friends and family I am still here today, despite numerous suicide attempts last year. I would never have survived without my absolutely wonderful Mom Elaine, who flew across the World at one day's notice to rescue me, her only child.

Please help me to raise funds as I currently have no income but would much prefer to spend my time making a difference to this sometimes harsh world...than sitting behind a desk somewhere crunching numbers (after spending the last 10 years working in Finance in UK, Switzerland, France and Australia).

Thanks in advance....xxx