Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I’m Nicola Ball and in 2016 I was diagnosed with Post-Partum psychosis after the birth of my daughter. Together with my family and friends I would like to raise awareness of this relatively hidden maternal mental illness by asking people to pledge £10 and run, walk or cycle your chosen distance during maternal mental heath week 4th-10th May to help us reach our team target of 1000 Kilometres in distance.

It would be great if as many people can tag themselves on social media too including #1000kchallenge #postpartumpsychosis #actiononpp

Together as a team we will travel 1000k symbolising the fact that postpartum psychosis happens to 1 to 2 in every 1000 mothers yet many of us have never even heard of it. 

Please pledge your money and distance on this page. You can complete your distance in one day or multiple days over the week of 4th-10th May, you could even do it indoors or in your back garden. And don’t forget to rope somebody else in too, the more the merrier! 

So why do this and why help? 

We are raising money for The charity APP who are the only one of its kind in the world and these are some of the great things they do;

Run an award-winning peer support service, connecting women and families throughout the UK to recovered volunteers: 

Develop patient information for women who have experienced PP and their families, co-produced by women, families, specialist clinicians and leading academic experts.

Offer training to frontline health professionals in PP and Managing SMI in pregnancy, co-produced and co-delivered by academics, clinicians and women with lived experience.

Facilitate research into the causes of PP, treatments and what helps families to recover.

Promote greater public awareness of PP in the general public, working to address stigma and misinformation, and campaign for improved perinatal mental health services.

Please join this challenge to help this amazing charity!! Please share your photos too and hopefully this will be something fun and jolly to ease the lockdown boredom too!