Southampton Event 27th September 2019, Hannah’s experiences!
It was a wet and windy night, and I didn’t think that we would have that many guests coming to our event – our advance ticket sales had been particularly low, so I was slightly worried! I arrived at the lovely Coffee Lab Bargate to set up with Rachel, as usual the staff were so thoughtful and welcoming.
We started to set out the tables, and our new shop with pins and cards. Then our amazing volunteers turned up to help finish setting up, and our lovely guests started to arrive. It was a constant flow with loads of people buying tickets on the door – I need not have worried!!!
Our first speaker was Pip – I had met Pip before and could tell from meeting her that she would have an interesting story – I was not disappointed! She was engaging, enthusiastic and passionate, the theme of her story around changing her life to be true to herself.
Our second speaker was Debs – who I was interviewing! She spoke about Touch Network, how it was set up, and our latest project – ‘My Amazing Story’. She also spoke about her fears which, unusually are greater when something is going well, her passion for sharing stories and doing life together was clear as always.
Then we had a break – it was so lovely to chat with some of our guests and find out how they were finding the evening.
After the break were Annie and Jenny – they were talking about their unlikely but strong and true friendship, how they support each other in good and bad times. This along with experiances as a child had inspired Annie to bring the Mental Health Network together to make Southampton a mental health friendly city. They were such a great double act and you could see clearly how well they knew each other and how deeply they cared for each other.
Last but very much not least was Colin, who spoke about the many times he could have ‘fallen off the edge’ in his life, but how his clear thinking had enabled him to steer a positive course. He was a clear, thoughtful and funny speaker.
We could have stayed for ages chatting with our amazing speakers and guests, once again it was an amazing night, and I loved hearing all of the inspiring stories.
Thanks everyone!