Kim is a theatre loving wife, mum and grandmother from Mid Wales. She’s also an NCMH Research Champion. This is her story.

I’m 57 years old and I live in mid Wales. I’m married with two grown up children, and one grandson. I like all kinds of sport, decorating and the theatre. Something that not many people know about me is that my uncle was a famous boxer!

Ten years ago I suffered a brain haemorrhage, along with two other aneurisms. I’ve also had a lot of deaths in the family to deal with unfortunately. This left me with severe depression and anxiety.

I think it’s very important to help find the causes of mental disorders, as this will help people to understand that mental illness is just that – an illness, and not just all in our heads.

As people understand more, I hope that it will help to stop people with mental illness from being thought of as ‘freaks’.

Volunteering for NCMH was easy, it just involved answering a few questions and having a little bit of blood taken, which was fine. Both of the researchers I met were extremely nice. I would definitely recommend taking part to others.