A MOTHER of three who set up a network to help people women suffering from post natal depression has been nominated for a national award.
Rosey Wren, from the Outer Hebrides, had no-one to talk to about the numb sensation which followed the arrival of her first baby.
There were occasions when her thoughts turned to suicide before she eventually spoke to her GP and was given antidepressants.
Now, eight years later, the Postnatal Depression Peer Support Network she runs on Twitter so that other mothers walking in her shoes are less isolated, has more than 5,000 followers.
Ms Wren said: "It is amazing to think that in almost eight years, such a negative experience has turned into such a positive one - one where I am able to help other mums and have the support that I did not have."
Now a mother of three, Ms Wren says she suffered depression both when she was pregnant and after the birth of her children - particularly the third. Yet, while her history was mentioned each time she fell pregnant, she said she was never offered extra support.
At the end of 2013 when she shared a poem she had written about her struggle, called PND and Me, via Twitter she found she was far from alone. In it she writes: "It took a long time/ To finally be free/ Of this hidden illness/ To get back to being me."
The responses she received and the messages she saw in discussions about mental health issues made her realise there was a gap in online support for those with PND. She created the @PNDandMe account with a weekly chat #PNDHour on Wednesday evenings. This chat has reached 2900 people and is followed by up to 60 every week.
Ms Wren has paid to undertake mental health first aid training to support her role running the discussion and she says midwives, health visitors and doctors join the #PNDHour threads.
She said: "I was really surprised how it took off. Even now I am a bit shell shocked about how it has gone. It just shows how needed it was."
She has now made the shortlist for the Talk Talk Digital Heroes Award in the Healthy Living category.
Voting for the winner is open until September 8. Should Ms Wren, mother to Kimberley, 7, Connor, 5, and Harvey, 3, win the prize of £5000 she says she would use the money to set up as a charity and to train other mothers to offer peer support.
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