Suzanne Day

Following the floods experienced in West Cumbria in November 2009, Suzanne came to Mind in West Cumbria as a volunteer to offer a listening ear to those affected. Despite her youth - she was aged only 26 - she related to people with an instant rapport and she soon started to become involved in many other aspects of the charity's work. When her home town of Whitehaven experienced the tragedy of the West Cumbria shootings in June 2010 she continued to be a support to people in her community. She also gave hundreds of hours free of charge to help set up a music group, and with her bubbly personality soon had participants suffering from mental illness singing and dancing along. She also jointly ran a self esteem group and encouraged people to stand up for themselves. In recognition of her contribution Suzanne was offered 10 hours per week paid work as Volunteer Organiser, and she currently continues to work at least twice this number of hours free of charge to promote Mind's Get Talking campaign which aims to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental ill health.