The Enormity of it All

November 20, 2012 by traceypallett | 1 Comment

Well here’s a first, writing a blog on my notes app of my iPhone. Lets see what fun stuff auto correct puts in here. 

I’m on my way home from the Mind Awards and the enormity of what happened last night has just hit me.  I was there, with fellow mental health campaigners and champions celebrating the work that been achieved to raise mental health awareness over the last year. 

The first thing that hit when I arrived was an enormous picture of my face! Yes, my face was blown up big time. If you don’t know I am one of the faces of Mind so you’ll probably have seen my ugly mug somewhere around advertising Mind.  I hadn’t even walked in the building and felt as though I wanted to pass out, just because of that picture.  I was asked by Mind staff members if I knew that was going to be there, was I meant to have been warned? 

Of course the first thing to do is get a photo of me in front of it.  That led to people in the room recognising me and more folks were taking pics of me with… ‘me’.  When I wasn’t in front of ‘me’ people were still pointing at me and then the picture. Wow, fame in my own little way. Well by the size of the photo, big fame – tee hee. 

Later I was told that there were only two big posters/displays with faces on, mine and Stephen Fry – insert an little dance here. 

While we didn’t have name tags with out Twitter names on, people seemed to recognise my real name and came to say how great my blog was.  It happened so many times that I had to be calmed down from being so overwhelmed – thanks Louise!   

It is such a great feeling to know that my blog is felt by so many people and I have touched their lives.  Due to the nature of my blog I don’t get my feedback, so to have it all in one fowl swoop is a knock your socks off moment.  It was simply amazing. 

The aim of the night was to shake Stephen Fry’s hand and say thank you for the impact he has made on my life and that of so many others. Unfortunately he was ill with a stomach bug so had to leave early.  But I was in the same room as him admiring his voice and knowledge and in awe of the things he shared with his ‘family’. 

I was able to meet Paul Farmer, the Chief Exec of Mind, who I admire for being so strong for all of us. Especially when he was fighting for the WCA changes.  Hats off to this man.  He was adorable, so kind and warming. He even said he liked looking at my face (the adverts of course!).  He told me how nervous he was before the awards and that he classes this as the biggest even in the Mind calendar as so much networking and mingling goes on.  This figure head of Mind was nervous, just shows he is human like the rest of us. 

I’ve just changed trains and lost my thread, ooops! 

 

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