Pick Me Up! 31-Jan-2019

Driving back and forth from doctors appointments, I desperately wanted a diagnosis for my son Jacob, then 1. It was summer 2011 and he’d recently started showing classic signs of autism. I was scared, wasn’t sure what to do. That’s when Mum stepped in. ‘Everything will be all right,’ she’d reassure me as we waited to see specialists. I was thankful to have her by my side, was certain that I’d have crumbled without her. Especially as my husband Mark, 48, had to work all the time and, as my brother, also Mark, 44, had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. But despite the chaos in all our lives, Mum never wavered. She was strong for every single one of us. But within just a few short years everything in…

The first of many school pictures together. So proud of my little girls, Gracey, 6, and Ellie, 4. Tanya Sayers, Saltburn-bythe-Sea I wished for wings for ages – that way a trip to London would be a lot quicker than taking the train. Here it looks like that dream came true! Pauline Taylor, Barnsley Eek! My 3-year-old son got more of an education than I’d bargained for when we visited the farm recently. Quick, Jack, cover your eyes! Alison Tucker, Edenbridge Here I am completing my first ever 10K. I’d only started running three months before this was taken. Kelly Imrie, Hurlford My partner Kyle and I couldn’t believe our luck when we met Michael Jackson’s guitarist Jennifer Batten and his incredible…

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What is home? If you’d asked me aged 14, I’d have said home was family. Home was friends. Home was running through the playing fields of Ireland’s County Meath. Sun on my face. Laughter in my ears. Not a care in the world. But in the summer of 1986, home was about to become something else entirely... ‘We’re moving to London,’ my dad Jim announced. Bewitched by his words and charm, I believed everything he said Dad was a crane driver, and he had to move wherever the work came up. And this time, it was in London. Part of me was excited to explore a new city, see the bright lights, meet new people. But my heart ached for this little corner of Ireland. Moving into our new home…

Suddenly, I felt devastated and brokenhearted, and I realised the strong hold Frank had on my life. When I fell into a deep depression, my parents thought I was going through a phase. I wasn’t. I missed what I thought was Frank’s love. Banging my head against my bedroom wall one night, I wanted to end it all. His abuse had made me suicidal. As time went on, I pulled myself together, but still never spoke a word of what Frank had put me through. It was only when I was 18, starting a relationship with a man my age, that it hit me. The hours Frank had spent making me feel special - it was all part of his plan. The days out, the compliments to make up for…

Scrolling through the estate-agent website, I couldn’t help feeling excited. ‘There’s enough room for a nursery in this one!’ I said, showing my boyfriend Alex, 26. ‘One day,’ he laughed. It was January 2015 - and after three years together, we were saving up to buy our own house. And I was getting carried away! We weren’t planning to start a family for a good few years yet. But, one month on, I realised my period was 10 days late. Alex tore to the chemist, bulk-bought pregnancy tests. And there it was. A definitive answer. Punching the words ‘cleft lip’ into my phone, I sobbed ‘I’m pregnant!’ I squealed. It looked like we would need that nursery after all... In truth, though, our plans to buy a house fell by…