Lucy joined the #campaign Inspiring Girls International called this little girl is me launched by #MiriamGonzalezDurantez

Here is her story that helps explain why she is so passionate about psychological fitness as the key to living  …

 

This little girl grew up in an era where children were ‘seen & not heard’. In a family where females had their place. She was loved & cared for, but her social & emotional development wasn’t nurtured.

 

Her school life started well, but her sense of purpose was never explored. Her lack of social & emotional skills meant she was blunt. Her mum worked full time & her dad worked abroad. She didn’t develop as a person. She withdrew inside a hard, tough exterior. She left school at 16 (well 15 really as she bunked most of the final year) with just 1 O level.

 

At 16 she started a Youth Training Scheme as a trainee hairdresser. She left home soon after (longer story) & moved into a bedsit. She earned £25 a week with rent at £16 – her life began to spiral.

 

Life was really tough (longer story) & she needed a way out. She travelled to Israel & volunteered on a Kibbutz. She sat on her two small bags at Tel Aviv airport with no idea where she was going. Long story, short it gave her so much experience & her sense of self started to develop.

 

Back in the UK, this girl had no qualifications & little self confidence, but she was brave & ballsy. She had many jobs, bar tender, warehouse, telecommunications, customer service. She worked hard, got promoted & when she fell pregnant with her first son, she was a Customer Services Manager, leading teams in satelite offices across the UK.

 

Being a mum is where she flourished. She finally had a sense of purpose in her life. As her children got older she realised her lack of education was going to be a problem. She began an The Open University degree, but in her first year, while her children were 7 & 5, aged 34, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a scary time (longer story), she thought her children would grow up without their mum.

She could have given up but she didn’t. She continued her degree, had treatment, a mastectomy, and threw herself into her education. It was her lifeline (as were her husband, her boys & her family) – she survive

 

Some 5 years later she sat in a conference where she heard a headteacher say “we do two things here, we teach responsibility & we teach our students to ‘fail’ well.”

 

She remembers thinking, if only I had been taught that failure was a learning opportunity!

 

Today at 54, she is passionate about the work of Bounce Forward – supporting schools to teach emotional resilience & parents to raise resilient children. It’s the most important education of all. She is doing her bit to refocus education so it prepares young people for life in the 21st century. Lucy has also developed Beyond Today, an online programme that takes you through the core elements to building psychological fitness. She also supports individuals on a 1-1 basis.

 

If this story inspires you, please support Bounce Forward by giving an amount of your choice because they need to reach as many schools as possible.

 

 

Thank YOU