A Biography.
1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health issue at some point in our lives. In fact we are all only one life event away from it...... It could be a bereavement, a divorce, losing a job, or another trauma that has impacted our mental health. Some of us will suffer short term and others will suffer longer term. Those with longer-term mental health issues are more likely to experienc
e stigma that attaches itself to those individuals with mental health disabilities. Mental health doesn’t discriminate, it can happen to anyone .....young, older, wealthy, low income, male, female, non-binary, transgender, disabled .....
In order for us to be able to lead a healthy life we need good physical and mental health! Based at the Pinetrees Centre, in The Circle, Pinehurst, the Kelly Foundation has been established to help tackle mental health in the Swindon Community for anyone over the age of 18 years old. We will offer support, generally advocacy, counselling, life coaching and act as a point of contact for those struggling with their mental health or needing assistance with getting their mental health assessed. With our dedicated team we will be on hand to help individuals on a bespoke pathway to a better, healthier and happier life. In the medium term we will also support social inclusion for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) by way of activities and events, which will encourage friendships and prevent loneliness with our 4K Social Clubs. The Kelly Foundation is committed to the Swindon Borough Council's Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which encourages "everyone in Swindon should live a healthy, safe, fulfilling and independent life and is supported by thriving and connected communities"
Our Motivation
In Swindon around 27,600 people have a mental health disorder, 700 hospital admissions each year for self-harm incidents, on average 16 residents per year die from su***de - three quarters are men. Office of National Statistics records 52 deaths from su***de in the Swindon area from 2018-2020 as 52. Whilst this is lower than the national average it is still up 7.4% from recorded statistics during 2017-2029. There is a huge gap between 10 minutes with an under pressure General Practitioner every two months, as an antidepressant prescription is reviewed, and intervention daily by the NHS Crisis Team and hospitalisation. In our experience (at least in our area), most GP surgeries do not seem to have the resources to support any kind of holistic approach, either identifying or being able to fund talk therapies or doing anything in a practical ongoing way to unravel the multiple pressures including debt, family crisis, substance dependence or simply destructive feelings of low esteem. Sign posting to Lift Psychology courses is about the most practical offer in most GP toolboxes or advice to book private counselling sessions at a big cost to the individual. Arguably, today, that it is not in fact their role, but in our society, unless you have substantial financial means, it is hard to find any practicable and available resources that will adopt a whole person approach. Our mission will argue that this is a vital role and it’s a space The Kelly Foundation will progressively seek to fill. A further gap exists where young people transition from child mental health services, often, but not exclusively provided by CAMHS, and a move into adulthood at 18 where, in our experience, any degree of comprehensive support effectively disappears in but the most extreme cases. The Kelly Foundation can and will seek to deliver some continuity with this group, as, at the present time, limited resources and excessive pressure on services in the community frequently allows them to fall through holes in the system. This is How We Work
If you think we can help you or close family or friends, then please do get in touch. We carefully assess each client referred to us to ensure we have the skills on board to properly support new service users. Our Story:
On 7th December 2003, my only son Corrie left the house on the Saturday night and never returned. He had suffered from undiagnosed anxiety and depression for many years and had sought to manage his feelings with street drugs. Initially he smoked cannabis to make his life bearable, although the attendant feelings of paranoia were, to an extent, a mixed blessing. He was a beautiful person, outgoing, happy, well liked with a huge friendship circle of young men and popular with the ladies. His optimism, engaging ever-present smile and warm personality entirely concealed what was going on inside his head, the weakness and despair that always bubbled just below the surface. None of his friends could understand when he slipped quietly from smoking cannabis to smoking he**in. This was a massive blow to all of us, 31 years old, he ran 5 miles a day, was strong and healthy and the pathologist commented he was the fittest young person he could recall in a very long time. No one was more badly affected by this than his ‘kid sister’, Kelly. She had always been close to Corrie growing up and boasted at Hreod Parkway School, if ever she was bullied one word from her ‘bruv’, was all that was needed! The seven years between them meant nothing. Kelly loved, looked up to, was protective of and felt protected by, her ‘big brother’ Corrie. I recall clearly this triggered her first breakdown. Since graduation as a journalist from Bournemouth University in 2001, Kelly had been a presenter on local BBC radio in the daytime and was a Samaritan for several evenings a week. Her bubbly outgoing personality shone through the radio and her afternoon show and outside broadcasts were an unremitting daily highlight for her many listeners. Keen to progress, 2007 she left for the bright lights, and became a producer at BBC SIX RADIO in Great Portland Street. Though you would have never been aware of it from her warm and fun exterior, following her brother’s death, periods of introspection and anxiety became slowly more frequent. In 2011 Kelly gave birth to her first child, a daughter, having married 12 months or so previously. By this time she was employed as a fundraiser for ‘Meningitis Now’, managing the highly sensitive task of counselling couples who had lost young children to this vicious disease and at the same time encouraging them to support future research. Periods of anxiety and depression became more frequent and she was hospitalised on at least three occasions, but still managed to present a positive, outgoing exterior whilst holding down, pretty much without break, difficult marketing jobs in the private sector. She went through every antidepressant known to man, mertazaprine, sertraline, fluoxetine, citalopram, escitalopram and paroxetine but none of these could manage her anxiety and despair. She spent all of her life’s
savings, more than £25,000, on homeopathic, vitamin and mineral remedies, mostly to Harley Street charlatans, equally to no avail. This is how desperate she was to find a way through. Only her husband, extended family and very close friends knew of her daily struggle, the pain of just trying to be normal, to put on her face to the world. Eventually she found a private therapist who was so effective in helping her reorganise her tortured mind and redirecting her thought processes to a more positive place; so much so, that in 2018, she gave birth to her second child, a beloved son. At the time of her death she was a mental-health champion at her then employer British Computer Society:
However awful her own issues she always believed she could help others with their black thoughts and moods. All throughout her determination to engage in work, to support her husband and young family, and to share and help others with their problems was quite remarkable. In April 2019 she attended her uncle’s funeral at South Marston, then visited Asda to pick up some baby milk, and her last stop was in Old Town, to rearrange a mental-health appointment for the following Tuesday in Bath Road. Twenty five minutes later, she had left this world. How exactly she ended up back on the railway at South Marston that Friday will remain a mystery and only known to Kelly. What we can say for sure is that her family, her nine-year-old daughter and six-month-old son were her whole world, and we know she would not have given up on them and we will certainly never ever accept the hopelessly simplistic Inquest verdict. If we can help just one of the thousands of Kelly’s out there, struggling to make sense of their thoughts, trying to function through a fog of despair, or perhaps just feeling totally inadequate with low self-worth, difficult and chaotic lives and feeling unable to cope, then our endeavours will be worthwhile. We believe that with our start up resources, we can directly help 40 to 50 clients each year in a range of different ways. Perhaps the Foundation can help them, in a way in which, in the end, I, John Stooke, was unable to help my children. John Stooke
Chairman
