PANDAS

I came across PANDAS following my own diagnosis of Postnatal Depression. Just like with my pregnancy, once I knew the reason for my struggles I had to research. I spent hours googling reading different articles and webpages.

PANDAS is a charity which was setup to support women struggling with Pre and Postnatal mental health illnesses and their families. They provide a free helpline where you can speak to someone as well as a Facebook and Email messaging support service. They rely solely on donations and I knew that I wanted to try and raise some much needed funds.

When the London Marathon was cancelled due to Coronavirus, many people decided to complete a 2.6 challenge to make up for the lost fundraising. You could do anything to help raise money. I decided to get involved; I was going to do 26 squats whilst holding Little A out in front of me; all in aid of PANDAS. I initially thought that 26 squats was a bit of a cop out but once I began to practice I realised that perhaps I’d been overambitious. I’d not done any kind of exercise since before I got pregnant and Little A was now a bit of a chunk. I knew it would be so worth it though. I paused my Social Media break to post about my fundraising efforts in the hope that I could raise a bit of money with my initial target at £100.

A few days later, Mr N filmed me nearly dying whilst completing my squat challenge. I teamed it with a short video to explain what I was doing, why I was doing it and a bit about the charity I was raising the money for. I was amazed at how generous people were and I smashed my initial target.. in the end I raised £505 for PANDAS. I am also hoping to volunteer with PANDAS in the future in some kind of support role… if something good can come out of my battle then perhaps it’s being able to help someone else with theirs.