Hey everyone, I hope you’re all well today. This is my sixth new style of blog. So far, so good, I’m hoping you’re all enjoying it.

I’m going to have guests answer some questions and hope it helps someone out there.

Today, my sixth guest on the blog is my step son Paul a very loyal, sarcastic and funny man, who astounds me with his determination to carry on through adversary.

Question 1. You unfortunately lost your mum and dad in a short space of time with each other, How do you deal with such sadness, or have you dealt with it?

I don’t think you ever really deal with a loss (especially as you say close together) it just becomes more manageable over time. It’s been 14 years nearly and only a few days ago I saw a lady who reminded me of my mum and it brought back certain emotions and memories about her.

Question 2. You have several physical conditions that can cause you extreme pain, daily, which stops you from doing what you used to do, How does that have an impact on your mental health?

I try my hardest to just carry on with help of very powerful medication and on a good day it’s livable. There are days that I miss my old lifestyle of playing very physically demanding sports (especially when I watch them on tv) and then there’s days I just don’t want to crawl out of bed because I know it’s not going to be a good day. Unfortunately eating is very closely linked to my emotional status, if I’m feeling down I tend to try and make myself feel better with the foods I love, but are Unfortunately not really healthy. This caused me to balloon up to 28st. That linked with not being able to do anything physical to help get my weight under control, felt like a vicious circle. This also impaired my mental state and I went to a very self loathing place.

Thank you Paul, here’s hoping you have better days more often.

This new blog of mine is coming to you every Thursday from 9.30 am UK time.

Thank you for reading, and if you want to take part, please drop a comment or leave me an email.