Hi everyone. I hope you’ve all had a good weekend and are all in good mental health. I’m goanna talk to you about an organisation that has given me the support to do my blogs and podcasts. They’re called the Restoration Trust.

I first got involved with them when I joined the Burgh Castle Almanac over two years ago. It was then that I met Laura Drysdale, the leader of the project, who’s a caring and very funny person. She was so welcoming to me when I first attended the BCA. From her commitment to the welfare of the other group members, I could see that she cared about every single one of us. Laura’s encouraging attitude led to her helping me with this blog.

When I met Laura, myself and my partner were living in the countryside and I was finding that really tough. I started to self-isolate, and when I was apart from the BCA, I’d hardly go out at all. Because of this, we decided we had to move back to the town centre of Lowestoft. I mentioned this to Laura, and she made some suggestions about how we could make this happen. She also said that if we needed any other help, I could Messenger or email her and she would do what she could.

Myself and my partner finally moved into a new place back in Lowestoft. Initially it was great, but we had issues with damp where we were living, and my partner couldn’t live in the flat due to her breathing difficulties. We had to get the council involved because it was their property but, as you can imagine, these things take time, and I ended up spending six months sleeping on a sofa because the bedroom was so full of damp. It took the council nearly nine months before they gave us another property that was fit to live in, which we’re very happy with now. All the way through this period, when I attended the BCA, Laura would always check in with me to see how I was doing.

I have done so many different things through the BCA which I thought I’d never do, from arts and crafts – which I absolutely detest – to walking along the Thames, to being given a tour behind the scenes at the British Museum, to visiting the Houses of Parliament to talk about how projects like the BCA help their members. It’s all down to Laura: without her, I wouldn’t have done any of these things.

I want to say a public ‘thank you’ to Laura, who has also lent me equipment so I can post my blogs and record my podcasts on a regular basis. Using a new computer program, I’m also able to speak my blogs into a laptop. I sit on the advisory panel for the Restoration Trust, so I can give an organisation that’s done so much for me the benefit of my lived experience of mental health. So, thank you, Laura – I hope our partnership can continue.

Thanks for reading the blog. I wish you all good mental health, and please remember to take some time to recharge and relax.