Lucy’s story

Background: Lucy Goode, who had previously experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression, was working for social care when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Her poor prognosis left her feeling anxious and she was signed off on long term sickness. She was referred to Suffolk Mind’s Suffolk Work Well service, before later joining the charity as a co-facilitator for its training arm, The Mental Health Toolkit. Here, she talks about her experiences.

I first started experiencing anxiety and depression in the late 90s. It was up and down depending on what was going on in my life at the time. I felt I managed it well.

In 2016 I was diagnosed with eye cancer and needed to have my eye removed. It was a real double whammy, first finding out you have cancer and then that you’re going to lose half your sight. Of course it has a big impact on your mental health, too.

The doctors had also given me a likely prognosis of five years. They said the cancer had spread into my blood stream, and that I’ll require six-monthly scans for the rest of my life.

Because eye cancer is so rare, the treatment options are limited. I basically need to have a scan every six months to see if I am going to live or die.

In the early days I was really struggling and felt like I was living one scan to the next. It got too much for me and I couldn’t concentrate on my job in social care, so needed to take time away.

After spending a few months off work, my GP suggested I get in touch with Suffolk Mind and its Suffolk Work Well service.

I didn’t have to wait long and was soon assigned a worker called Laura Bullard. She put me at ease and didn’t ask to speak so much about my illness – she just wanted to hear about me.

She always made me feel really relaxed. I could see she wanted to get to know me so she could learn to help me in the best way.

She put me through a few courses – Anxiety Management, Get Ready Step Forward, and another about Emotional Needs. The latter was a real lightbulb moment for me.

The main thing troubling me was that I didn’t feel I had any control over my cancer – and I was just waiting for it to do whatever it liked. But after doing that course I realised the best thing I could do is think about each of my Emotional Needs.

I started to think about Food & Drink – and looked up anti-cancer diets, took supplements and put myself more in Control.

I then thought about Community – and got in touch with England’s only eye cancer charity to meet and chat with more people living with the same condition.

The charity later asked me if I’d like to give a talk about my prevention plan and that helped me meet my need for Status.  

Suffolk Work Well continued to support me, and gradually as I continued to take more action to control my anxiety, I started thinking about getting back to work.

Laura liaised with my manager and came to meetings with me, making suggestions about the things they can do to help me on my return.

Because she was there, I felt justified in what I was asking for. She made me feel like I wasn’t asking for too much. After three months of her support, I was back to work.

All the support I received from Laura and Suffolk Mind as a whole, helped make me feel better.

Everyone was so supportive and understanding. Everything they did for me was tailored to my needs. They were non-judgmental too and were always happy go give up their time for me.

Because of my prognosis I later decided to retire. I thought, ‘if I have a short life, then I want to enjoy it’.

But I soon found myself missing coming home from work and knowing that I’d made a difference to someone’s life. I later realised that was me not meeting my need for Meaning & Purpose.

A friend of mine told me about a job available at Suffolk Mind and I went for it. And it’s filled that gap in my life – I really enjoy it.

I was given five years and I’m now in my ninth – and I feel like my prevention plan has made me stronger mentally. When you get depressed or anxious, your body fills with cortisol and affects your immune system – but because my mental health has been stable, I think it has helped keep me in remission.