Pick Me Up! 16-Jan-2020

I’ve always been into sport. As a professional horse rider, I absolutely loved being outside. But then one day in 2002, when I was 30, all that came tumbling down. I was out in the stables, sorting out the haystacks, when suddenly, one fell from the top and landed on my head. Weighing over a tonne, the hay immediately crushed my body to the ground, shattering my left ankle as a result. My leg was severely damaged, and I knew that my life had changed forever. It was a long recovery and my ankle developed arthritis, so I wouldn’t be able to do all the sport I loved. I’d lost my identity. It was a tough journey and for the next nine years, I battled with my mental health, before…

DID YOU KNOW? Ever managed to hunt down a designer bargain in a charity shop and felt like you were winning at life? Buying vintage and secondhand clothing is becoming more popular, and we are all for it! The online vintage clothing retailer TrueVintage.com is just one outlet helping to save tons of clothing from going to landfills by finding it a new home on the fashion scene. True Vintage was founded in 2013 by Rory Westbrook from his Portsmouth University dorm, and now the company ships vintage clothing worldwide. True Vintage stocks everything from Adidas and Fila, to Tommy Hilfiger and Champion, and even the more premium labels like Stone Island and Versace. Best of all, the products are much cheaper than they once were! Since its start up, True…

I couldn’t resist taking this picture in the supermarket. Potato love. Talk about wonky veg! M.Griffiths Anglesey My granddaughter Billi, 5, couldn’t decide which of grandad’s hats to wear, so she wore them all! Patricia Cordon, Cheltenham My lovely brother Ken enjoying a trip to Torquay! Karen Baker, Herts This photo makes me proud that I can show off my curvy body, and I hope other curvy ladies can do the same. I would love to spread body positivity! Jess Viljakainen, Cumbria This is my son-in-law and granddaughter having far too much fun at the toy store! Mary Hadley, Cradley Heath…

Picking up my phone, I stared at it for a few seconds before putting it back down, deciding to waste time making a cup of tea instead. As the pot was brewing, I looked around the flat for something else to distract me. I’d never been good at letting people down at the best of times, but this was different. I’d been trying to break up with my boyfriend Xavier Lightbourne, 30, for almost as long as we’d been together. We’d met in April 2017 on Instagram, and when we first got together, he was lovely. But early on in our relationship, he’d become violent and controlling. He even set up a fake Facebook account in my name, posting pictures I would never want anyone to see, threatened to make…

Scrolling through my phone one morning, it suddenly pinged with a message. Did you know about this? a friend asked, attaching a link to a news website. It was an article about my cat, Pumpkin, saying he’d been banned from the supermarket! ‘This is news to me!’ I cried, calling my husband Lee, 50, over to have a look. ‘But he’s done nothing wrong,’ Lee said, confused. A few weeks earlier, I’d read an article in Pick Me Up! about a cat called Spartacus who spent all his time at his local Tesco - and they loved him! But sadly, it seemed that not all cats were welcome... We’d got six-year-old Pumpkin from a rescue centre in November 2017. We already had seven other cats at home - Dexter, Freddie,…

Rubbing my eyes, I could see flashing lights and black spots. What’s happening, I thought. In November 2013, I was suffering with migraines and double vision. ‘We’re going to put you through some tests to determine what’s wrong,’ my doctor told me. Trying to carry on with life, I battled my thumping headaches and blurred sight. Finishing my shift in Waitrose, I went back to my flat and looked forward to every moment I spent with my daughter, Alexa, one. I shared parenting with Alexa’s mum and really loved being a dad. ‘Look how big you’ve got!’ I beamed, cradling my little girl. As the weeks passed, my vision became worrying. ‘The results from your tests have come back,’ the consultant explained. ‘You have Behcet’s disease.’ I was diagnosed with…