I first came out 28 years ago. My coming out promotional message was that I was happy, sane and well. I was a happy, sane and well lesbian. The coming out process was remarkably simple and painless but it was the era of Greenham Common and second wave feminism. Three years ago I had to work out a new coming out strategy to accompany the onset of what was to become a severe mental illness.
My first campaign was to do with a rehabilitation training centre called Wiseworks in Harrow near where I live. I myself spent one and a half years there when I was recovering. I had become unwell and there was not a single penny coming in. I was used to being in a business world and being very successful, then all of a sudden I had no income, it was devastating. The first week I went to rehabilitation training, I was offered three pounds at the end of the week for my work. Those three pounds for me meant three thousand pounds - it was just that feeling that I was taking something home.
Footprints in the Sand never started life as any sort of crusade, it was simply a personal experience woven in to some lyrical ideas I'd come up with. But there is a story to be told and I am only too happy to tell it and hopefully inspire others in the future.
