Long story short: 2025 was a year of change

We’ve made it. Nearly to the end of the year that is, and this is the last blog posting from me in 2025. It’s been quite a year; a year of change. Following a lovely Christmas and New Year celebration, 2025 started well. It was quiet and nothing out of the ordinary. The 9^th January came and it had snowed overnight. Looking out of my bedroom window at 4.30am, the outside world appeared calm and still. However, I decided to work from home, rather than risk travelling on the motorways into Manchester.

 

Jane was also working from home that day. She was upstairs in her office, and I was downstairs in mine (laptop on my lap). Mid-morning, I took a call from one of Jane’s colleagues. It was a welfare call, asking me to check if Jane was okay, as she had been seen to become unwell on a Teams call. Going upstairs, I found a bewildered Jane sitting on the floor.

 

Long story short, Jane had a suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage and was very poorly. Via our local A&E department, Jane was eventually blue-lighted to the Neurological High Care Unit at Preston. She was there for two months. Jane had three operations, including having a permanent shunt fitted, before moving to a step-down ward for 10 days and then, thankfully home. The care that Jane received was simply first class. She was looked after by knowledgeable, confident and compassionate health care professionals.

 

In those early days at home, we both had to learn to adjust to a different way of being. Jane’s short-term memory was, and remains, somewhat hit and miss. Likewise, she still lives with a central brain fatigue, which makes it difficult for her to always get through the day without a 20-minute sleep. We have learnt the art of ‘Pace’ and ‘Grade’ – the number of activities Jane does each day and the impact each might have on her brain to cope.

 

That said, by May, Jane had made remarkable progress, and we were able to celebrate my birthday by taking a narrowboat holiday on the Calder & Hebble Navigation. It was a wonderful trip. We both enjoyed the sunshine, the calm waters and the totally slowed down way of life. So much so, that in late July, we bought our own 35-foot-long narrowboat, Bluebell. She has been a joy and already has brought us much happiness. Bluebell represents a change in the way we want to live our lives.

 

We both realised that every day is precious and is there to be enjoyed and valued. Sadly, Jane wasn’t able to continue working in her job. Currently she can’t take on full time employment – another big change for us. I continue in my role as Chair at a mental health Trust. 2025 has been a better year for my colleagues. As noted in last week’s blog, we are now back on track to be the kind of mental health service we should be - outstanding.

 

Whilst the past year has seen claims that mental health problems are being over diagnosed, it is clear that the demand for services keeps rising. More needs to be done ‘upstream’ to help in dealing with the underlying issues that often give rise to poor mental health and wellbeing. Most importantly, more needs to be done to help prevent children and young people experiencing mental health problems. Doing so will involve making a determined shift to a more community and neighbourhood-focused provision of services; something we, as a Trust, are fully committed to. I’m really confident my colleagues will continue making the improvements we need to deliver this bold ambition.

 

This year not only has it been family and friends who have been there for Jane and me, but my colleagues too. I think I would have found it really difficult to continue to be part of our GMMH team had it not been for the support of my colleagues. They did go the extra mile when it came to being supportive, and for that I’m grateful.  

 

So, a year of change for sure. Jane and I are still standing and have so much more to look forward to. And so does Fiona. First a little explanation. Jane would love to have enough land to keep a small flock of sheep. We don’t, and although she loves our two pygmy goats, they are not quite the same. Fiona was the ewe, who fell off a cliff in Scotland in 2021, ending up sadly marooned on an inaccessible beach. She was still there in 2023, when she was rescued. Like Jane, Fiona has received the best possible care in aiding her recovery, but unlike Jane, she is now expecting twins (lambs that is)… …wishing everyone a wonderful 2026, whatever it might bring.