At the age of two I was adopted. I was a mixed heritage child, placed with a white family. My early recollections were of brutality. I was born in the mid-50s. My white mother and I were sitting on a train and a man verbally abused my mother because he thought she was married to a black man. Racial tension was blatant. I saw my first black person at the age of 12 because we lived in the quaint streets of suburbia.

I am 34 years old, and I have battled depression and anxiety for about 18/19 years. I have spent long periods in depression, and experienced periods where I have felt OK. However, in the last 12 months or so depression, anxiety and panic disorder took over my life. I struggled to focus on anything thing for any period of time, from work to going to the gym, or even just a shopping trip.