• With a background in Sport and Exercise Science Nutrition and a Personal Trainer , I began my career by training young people and eventually moved into schools to lead group exercise sessions. Witnessing firsthand the negative impact of unhealthy foods on students, I took on a pastoral wellbeing role, transforming school nutrition through assemblies, support programs, and collaborations with local councils to limit access to unhealthy drinks.
   

•  In a subsequent safeguarding role, I managed overseas students and saw dramatic improvements in their mental health and academic performance with healthier diets. This inspired me to further research the link between food and mental health, and I observed significant positive changes in students who adopted better eating habits.
   

•  Motivated by these experiences, I founded Food and Mood Education to empower young people to improve their mental and physical health through nutrition. Now a trained Level 3 counselor and Mental Health First Aider, I travel to schools and colleges, delivering nutritional education to address the mental health crisis among young people.

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Read the full story below-

 

With a background in fitness instructing and sport and exercise science, I began my career personal training young people. 12 years ago, I began to go into schools and carry out group exercise sessions which then led me to my first role as a cover teacher. This quickly adapted into a pastoral wellbeing role, as i began to notice the huge part that unhealthy food was playing within the school. I would literally witness the effects within my lessons, of them consuming an energy drink before hand, and then watch their behaviour and energy levels deteriorate in front of my eyes. I wanted to make a change and start to educate my students on the affects of this type of food and drink on their bodies and brains. So i began to deliver assemblies on healthy eating, set up drop ins for students struggling with food, run sports and nutrition programmes, and i managed to transform the food in the school canteen. Finally i began to work with the local council on a project to stop local shops selling fizzy drinks to school children before school. It was at this first school that I began to recognise the huge affect that food was having on our young people’s mental health and how there was no upto date education being taught to them about this.

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I moved into a different safeguarding role where I managed overseas students living in the UK. It was here that I really recognised the difference in food habits. How it was affecting their sleep, and their ability to concentrate at school. I began to do more research on the effects of food on the brain and would discuss with the students and their host families the importance of healthy food. The changes in the students who changed their diet and listened to my advice was staggering. They were reporting that they felt so much happier, their anxiety had disappeared, and they were sleeping through the night without feeling constantly fatigued.

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From here I had my son, Teddy, and began to study to become a counsellor. My son bought a whole new aspect in seeing first hand the affects of food on his behaviour sleep and mood. I began to do more research on the link between food and the body. Through studying my counselling diploma i began to recognise how food habits are intrinsically linked to past unresolved issues or trauma and how these can play out in destructive behaviours with food.

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I began working in another school and created a role for myself as a therapeutic behaviour consultant. Taking the top ten children that caused the most disruption in school and instead of using punishments, taking them for wellbeing sessions where we would discuss, their feelings, behaviours and of course food. This had staggering results for all the students, who statistics improved in every single area of their school life. Working within another school it was clear to see the enormity of the impact that food was having on students’ wellbeing.

I began to have conversations with staff and encouraged them through training to include discussions around food, as any mental health wellbeing was going to fall short, and anxiety was going to be impossible to get a handle on if a student was filling their bodies with chemicals which wreak havoc with their brains.

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From this role I moved to a Safeguarding officer which is my current role. I deal with students on a daily basis who have panic attacks and severe depression, which leads to self-harm and suicide attempts. They are on waitlists for years and the only support they receive is the sessions they have with me. Mental health is the worst state its ever been in and this is directly linked to food.

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I decided to set up Food and Mood Education, to empower young people to help themselves and make real, everlasting change to their mental and physical health.

I did a lot more research contacting GP’s and specialist nutritionists. I have always closely followed the food and mood centre who are groundbreaking in their nutritional research in Australia. They set up the first study on how food affects mental health, and the results were staggering. All of the participants who suffered from clinical depression showed improved symptoms and a 1/3 went into complete remission.

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I am now trained to Level 3 in Humanistic and Psychotherapy counselling and a Mental Health First Aider. I travel round to schools and colleges and deliver up to date and easy to understand nutritional education to show the impact that food is having on our young peoples mental and physical health.

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I now work closely with the Children's Food Campaign. We created a manifesto of what we thought the government needed to change in regards to our children's food and presented this in Parliament. We have also met with the Early years Education Minister to discuss important changes that need to be made in our food system. We will continue to work closely with the government to make sure that necessary change is implemented.

 

I want to bring my message to as many young people as possible to help them out of this mental and physical health crisis we are currently facing.