'I feel alive again' Lynn talks about her inspirational journey with our County Durham Resilience service

PCP had the pleasure of sitting down with Lynn Hall, who talked to us about her journey with our County Durham Resilience service, please take the time to read her inspirational story.

Lynn Hall

"I used to look after people with dementia and now I look after my husband who has vascular dementia and Alzheimer's. Before I was disabled myself, I always used to say it was important to look after the whole unit at work and make sure they could carry on with their lives, to keep their identity, and then you suddenly go - oh hang on a minute I've done exactly the opposite to myself – I lost myself.

"I went to my doctors for my asthma check and I was very tearful because everything had really got on top of me, and I wasn't in a very good place, so they referred me on to somebody within the practice who then referred me to the County Durham Resilience service, and that's where Nicky Lawrence (Resilience Coordinator) picked up and saved me.

"At the time they said about seeing and meeting up with Nicky, I much rather see people face to face than on the phone. I'm not very good at talking on phones, and I was in a very dark place, I just kept crying all the time, and I think it's because I'd spent my life looking after people, and I'd forgotten to look after myself.

"Nicky spoke to me about various things in the past - what I used to do etc and then she said, ‘oh you've come alive talking about that’ and she encouraged me, and because my husband and I had been going to Singing for the Brain, what was run by the Alzheimer's Society, she heard about this group the Turtle Song and said why don't we see if we can join the group.

"It's made so much difference because years and years ago I used to be part of a musical society, we used to do stage shows and all sorts, and I'd forgotten what it was like to sing again properly. I used to write poems, I had a couple published but I'd lost all that. I'd become this person that just looks after people, and not worried about myself or did any self-care at all and put everybody before me.

"I'd forgotten what it was like to actually be out there and perform on the stage and everything, which your first night is terrifying when you're waiting in the wings to go out, but once you get out and start singing and you get the reaction from the audience and everything just comes back out it's fantastic, it's amazing, and Nicky's helped me find it all back again.

"Nicky’s been really good at finding things that I enjoy doing, and just saying, ‘come along, there's this group, there's that group’. I'd stopped reading, and I used to read loads I read. Nicky suggested we go to the library, and we did, she's just been amazing at finding out little titbits of what I used to do and bringing it back.

"It's the first time I've worn nail varnish in years and I hadn't had my hair cut in about four years, and it was really long, and I never had long hair - I didn't like long hair. And I said to Nicky, I'm going to get my hair cut, so she said ‘until you've booked it up it's not going to happen’ which made me then go and book it up. And I did, and as soon as the hair was gone I looked at myself and said ‘this is me this is who I used to be’.

"Even my husband said ‘oh you're yourself now, you know’ and that was so nice, that he could see that I was becoming my old self, who I should have been all the time.

"The service has been brilliant for my mental health. My husband and I were in a very, very low place I felt so alone, and segregated from everything, and because Nicky has made me feel alive again it’s given me my life back, she really has given me my life back, and I'm just, I'm looking forward to doing so many things. I'd stopped doing stuff - even meeting up with my children because of the distance. I'm meeting up with them again and doing stuff, which is great. My children said ‘you look so well now Mum’.

"I'd also forgotten what it was like to actually be out there and perform on the stage and everything, which your first night is terrifying when you're waiting in the wings to go out, but once you get out and start singing and you get the reaction from the audience and everything just comes back out it's fantastic, it's amazing, and Nicky's helped me find it all back again.

"Being with the County Durham Resilience service just been amazing, it just reminded me of what life used to be like, it's just turned my life and it's given me that buzz to come out and actually try things and do things again which I'd lost, I had lost - I was just totally lost, and Nicky was brilliant at gently nudging things out. I just feel alive.

"County Durham Resilience is an amazing service. I would 110 percent recommend using the service if you need to. We as a county need it, people need it and they just might not realise what can be done by utilising the service."

PCP would like to thank Lynn for giving us her time and sharing her story, we wish her and her husband all the best.

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