A woman who "felt like she was having a heart attack" is using her struggles to help ensure "lives are not taken too soon".
Like many across the UK Ashley Jones and her partner Terri-Ann Carnall, from Speke, felt their mental health decline during the covid lockdown as they became extremely anxious and depressed. Ashley said she was "scared to go out" and felt "secluded" from her loved ones.
When the panic attacks started, Ashley found herself in A&E, feeling like she was "having a heart attack" but felt she wasn't being taken seriously. She told the ECHO: "I thought I was a stronger person, it was hard to admit. I started to seclude myself from everyone, I became very scared to go out the house, in turn staying in over a long period of time it affected me a lot."
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When speaking to her partner, they decided something needed to be done, and they turned to medical professionals for help, but is still waiting for a counsellor. She added: "I was crying out for help and getting nowhere, I was becoming desperate.
"I spoke to my partner and said this has got the best of us, it had become too much and we didn't want to admit it. Every day people are taking their own lives but there's not much help out there locally, especially after 5pm. At one point my partner was feeling suicidal."
Ashley said "more needs to be done" to help people as "filling out a form is not realistic to how someone is really feeling". She told the ECHO: "Should people be waiting around for help when they finally have the courage to talk about it?"
After Terri-Ann signed up for a white-collar charity fight [A type of boxing where people from other professions train to fight for special events] to help her mood for a good cause Ashley signed up, she said: "I loved it, the meeting new people and the strength I had. It was mind-blowing."
Through these fitness classes, Ashley said the community are "supporting" one another through their battles. After raising funds for mental health charities in the past, now, Ashely is raising funds through a charity fight for Cancer Research UK and MIND.
But looking towards the future, the couple want to do what they can to help others, and eventually start their own charity in Liverpool to support people 24/7 through events and talking to one another. Ashley said: "Since I have been posting about mental health awareness loads of people from different backgrounds have been messaging me that they are suffering from bad mental health, it’s that bad.
"This is made us want to fight for people with mental health and stand up for these people and make a difference, we want to start a mental health charity to fund at 24-hour drop in centre in Liverpool. We don’t want people to feel embarrassed about needing help."
She added: "We realised we could make a change. There's actually not much out there. We've got some ideas but everything is in the early stages.
"It's okay to not be okay. Try and join local groups, when people haven't been able to get the help they need, in these groups we self-help ourselves, we talk to each other. We want to shout out to the world that everything is going to be okay."
As the couple prepare for their first battle, the charity fight, many local businesses have already backed them and are willing to help to support those struggling with mental health. They are urging people to "reach out and talk" about their struggles as "no-one should suffer in silence". Anyone with information is being urged to contact Ashley and Terri-Ann via email Mentalmedicineliverpool24hr@yahoo.com or Facebook.
You can support Ashley's white collar boxing fight for charity here.
For confidential support the Samaritans can be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123. MIND can also be contacted via 0300 123 3393.
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