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It was a beautiful sunny morning as I made my way to Radio Merseyside. Each time I go the cranes and building work for ‘Liverpool – Capital of Culture’ seem to be making progress. Once again I was going to review the newspapers on the Breakfast show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/local_radio/index.shtml

I chose a story in the papers today about a health map of Britain which listed Merseyside as having the highest rates of depression in the UK. I hope someone heard me say that you can get better and that it helped them. I went on to mention a feature in the Daily Post about getting out on bicycles – exercise can help depression a great deal but you do need encouragement to do it!

From there I made my way onto Edge Hill University at Ormskirk where I gave my ‘What matters to patients’ presentation to all the pre-registration nursing students. I always have a trip down memory lane when I speak here as that was were I did my degree for four years – happy times! Greg Davies – where are you now?!

I got a very warm reception from the students and I invariably get a few talking to me afterwards. One lady had also suffered from postnatal depression years ago but still worried that it may come back. I do hope she felt better after we talked about what she would do if she recognised the signs and acknowledged she would get help much sooner.

One young man made me feel particularly pleased about my role. He told me that he suffers from depression and some days he really struggles to get out of bed. It was hard for his housemates to understand but he told me he was so pleased for raising all the issues and he hoped it would help his friends to help and understand him more.
With his permission he sent me these messages ..

Ever since I heard you speak I’ve been thinking about what you said, how you got through!!! Once again I just want to say thank you for giving that insight into mental health issues and depression, it’s made people ask me questions that they would shy away from asking me before.

But most of all on that day I had been the lowest that I had been for a while and you showed me that there is a way out, and I can do whatever I want to, especially become the nurse that I dream to be!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Thank you Chris for making me feel so privileged and humble to make that difference. I am sure you will be a fantastic nurse!

Thank you to those other students who also shared a little of themselves with me too.

After the lecture I was taken around the new health education building – very impressive! It was a field in my day!!

Elaine

www.hanzak.com