Finding Becky

Completed! ✔️

43 miles in 13 hours 20 mins and I’ve raised nearly £1000 over my initial target! With it being mental health awareness month I am going to keep my page open for the rest of May to continue to spread awareness. 

We set off at 4am and arrived for 5.20pm at Thumbswood Mother and Baby unit with my gorgeous little girls running straight up to me. The Welcome I received was far beyond anything I had imagined. We went into the MBU to meet some of the ladies who all came in on their day off to greet me with refreshments and flowers and I’ve been invited back for a future visit, they were so kind and clearly do an amazing job for the women and babies who stay there plus the families. Then on to the pub to celebrate with my incredible family and friends! I really am so proud of myself for not only coming up with an idea and following through with it but also actually getting out the house to train and pushing through the nerves of sharing on social media, and reaching my fundraising target yay!!! My main goal was to achieve this not only for myself but so many women out there to show them you can do this and things get better. Keep the positivity coming, reach out for support and surround yourself with good humans beings, if you have a bad Moment or day just throw it in the bin and keep going And ofc to raise money for an amazing charity. The MBU spoke so highly of action on postpartum psychosis, how they work close together to support women and families and even send them little gift bags of support. It really reassured me I have done the right thing. Finishing the run was an amazing feeling, the final 7 miles were so tough, once off the canal it was hilly, seriously muddy, sliding myself under a gate and fence becuse I didn’t have the energy to climb. Moments of being in tears feeling like I couldn’t go on. My body was so tired and with 3 miles left I couldn’t physically run anymore I was in too much pain with my knees. But I did finish it with the help of my dad and brother and everyone waiting for me at the end!! Thank you all SO MUCH for the words of support, donations, advice and time everyone took out of their day to support me to the finish line. Its time to hang up my trainers for some well earned rest

On Saturday 13th May 2023 (Less than 3 weeks!) I will be walking, running and most likely crawling 43 miles from my home to what could have been my closest mother and baby unit. (Was 36 miles but the route has changed) 

For anyone who may not know, I’m 29, a part-time working wife and mum to 3 beautiful girls.

2 years ago in May 2021, 4 weeks after giving birth to my identical twin girls I was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. This day my fears were at an all-time high, I snuck out of the house and called the police on my husband ❤️

The days leading up to my psychosis I was so overwhelmed and really, that was my brain trying to get help. Juggling a new life with 3 under 2 , covid, a high-risk pregnancy, recovering from birth, trauma, PTSD and sleep deprived, my anxiety was so high, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I was paranoid, confused, I thought bad things were going to happen and I had no idea what was going on, I couldn’t look after myself let alone care for the girls on my own and keep up with normal daily tasks. This was a shock as it was a bit out of the blue and could have been confused with normal new mum struggles which is why I want to raise awareness.

This is where Finding Becky comes from. It took 5 days for me to be seen by a consultant, I had multiple episodes of psychosis and when I finally started to get some sleep, calm down and was feeling more myself again, I suppose I was in a child-like state. From what I remember, reading, writing, counting and remembering things took a lot of effort and managing lots of different emotions was tough. I spent around 2 months in a little bubble of just doing normal daily things to make sure I recovered. So when I had to concentrate on something I would say ‘Just keep swimming just keep swimming’ to stay on track and I would often relate myself to finding Dory which made me laugh because it felt true! I had to piece myself back together.

£2400 is my target, this is the number of women on average who would have been diagnosed with this since myself on my 2nd anniversary.

I want to raise awareness of postpartum psychosis and raise money for the only UK charity ‘Action on Postpartum Psychosis’ which supports women and their families through this difficult time, which as a family we are still feeling the pain we suffered.

I am so grateful to have been cared for by my family at home with my girls which is where I needed to be. In my eyes, it was caught early and I was able to recover with the help of my family, the crisis team, and the perinatal mental health team who I am so thankful for! Oh and hallelujah to the medication!

So although this was undoubtedly the hardest time of our life, I want to share my story and give hope to others to not feel alone and to know you can get through anything, when that dark cloud comes over, it may pour down and you will feel it but you are not the rain and it will shine again! (Possibly my favourite analogy yet ) ☀️

This has changed my life for the better, I can appreciate the things that truly matter. Yes it was not what we had planned but we still have so many gorgeous memories to hold on to! I’m so proud of Matt and myself for getting through this time and continuing to be the best team and navigating our way through this crazy life together with our beautiful children because some families don’t get the help and support they need in time.

I came up with the idea of traveling on foot to my closest mother and baby unit as part of campaigning for more mother and baby units in the UK. I am not a runner but I found my bucket list from 10 years ago to complete a Marathon so I thought this would be a huge challenge and tick something off that I’ve always wanted to do (no idea why!)

No one I speak to seems to have heard of MBU’s but it is a specialist unit for mums and their baby (Babies!) to stay together to recover and be cared for by the right professional, unfortunately, not all mums will have access to them and too many women are separated from their babies and taken to normal psychiatric units and if there are places available, they are usually hours from home. I can’t even imagine!

My journey so far, I completed my first little run locally in Feb before joining Redway runners who have been amazing! I’ve done a 4-week training course for running and I’ve been out to get myself some new trainers On Sunday 2nd April I completed my first 10 miles! So now I feel like I’ve committed, I will be sharing my progress and my story in more detail along the way and I hope to see you on this journey with me!

It’s not easy getting out of the house and putting my trainers on, especially when I have to leave knowing it’s bedtime and it’s Matt v The Girls but when I do get out and give my body what it needs after a full day as a mum it feels amazing!

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Do you want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money in aid of Action on Postpartum Psychosis and every donation will help. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

More information about Action on Postpartum Psychosis: Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP) is the National charity for women and families affected by Postpartum Psychosis (PP).

PP is a severe mental illness which begins suddenly following childbirth. Over 1400 women experience PP each year in the UK (1 to 2 in every 1000 mothers).

We run an award-winning peer support service, develop patient information, offer training to frontline health professionals, facilitate research and promote greater public awareness of PP and campaign for improved services.