“I knew in my mid-late teens something wasn’t quite right with my moods or behaviour. It was so confusing. Doctors told me I had depression, and off I went with my antidepressants, until my hypomania and depressive episodes became too destructive. Eventually diagnosed at age 30 with bi-polar 2; it took another eight years to try and find medications to allow me to try and live a ‘normal’ life.

Nothing is normal for me having bipolar, but I get on with it. Like we all try and do. It’s not easy and there are ups and downs but at 46 years old I’m about to graduate with my first degree, and proud of myself for that, no matter how I got here.”