Season four of Chris's football tour kicks off
A new football season has begun, and so Chris is back out attending matches and helping to raise awareness of postpartum psychosis and APP.
For the last three years dad of two, Chris, has been attempting to watch to a football match at the ground closest to every Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) across the UK.
You can read about all his adventures so far, where he's visited, how many match programmes he's featured in, and even listen to his radio interview here.
For the first match of his fourth season, and his 15th so far, Chris headed to Charlton Athletic with his dad.
Chris says: 'What a way to start the season off… I actually saw a home win! The curse has been lifted!
We really enjoyed our visit to The Valley and our unexpected tour of all areas of London!
I have to say a massive thank you to Charlton, who, like many clubs, were kind enough to include a lovely entry about my challenge, postpartum psychosis and the MBUs in the matchday programme.'
For his next match, he'll be heading to Leeds - check back here for another update!
Leeds United - Monday 14th September
Chris reports back from his trip to Leeds - next stop on his postpartum psychosis awareness-raising challenge! This time he travelled with his good friend Ross.'We started the day by visiting the Yorkshire and Humber Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). There simply aren’t enough MBUs across the UK, so it was amazing to see that Yorkshire and Humber are currently increasing their capacity from 8 to 14 beds.
We were very kindly shown around the MBU by Shannon, the Clinical Team Manager, and had the opportunity to meet so many lovely members of the team, including the Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead Dr Narayan, Ben from the communications team, the MBU staff and members of the community perinatal mental health team too.
Everyone was so kind, welcoming and interested in our story and my national awareness challenge. But one thing that particularly struck me was the importance Yorkshire and Humber place on engaging with and supporting partners while their loved ones are in the MBU.
Partners often experience postpartum psychosis first-hand. So it was incredibly refreshing to see the MBU putting such a strong focus on supporting partners throughout this journey.
We then headed to the historic Elland Road to watch my 16th match of the tour — Leeds vs Newcastle. There is nothing quite like live football. But what a night this was - Costa del Leeds weather, a match under the lights, an incredible atmosphere… and a brilliant 4-1 home win! I actually saw a convincing home win! And lots of goals!
But I am so thankful to Leeds United - the staff have been incredibly supportive of my challenge. We wouldn’t have been at the match without their help with tickets, they put an entry in the match day programme including a QR code directing people to my Instagram page, and — the absolute highlight — pre-match pitchside photographs! Being pitchside for pre-match photos is such a rare and special experience. It doesn’t happen often, and I feel so lucky and grateful to have the opportunity.
But more importantly, I’m incredibly grateful that Leeds have used their platform to help me raise awareness of postpartum psychosis, Mother and Baby Units and APP.
The kindness and generosity shown by everyone at Leeds has meant so much to me. A huge thank you to everyone for their support and for getting behind this challenge.
Every bit of awareness helps, and every conversation brings us one step closer to making sure more people know about postpartum psychosis, the invaluable and critical work carried out by MBUs, and the support available to families.'
Chris is also one of our partner peer supporters, and he has helped organise a meet up in London for dads and co-parents, which will be taking place on 19th September. Find out more about our partner peer support service here.
You can also follow Chris's progress on Instagram: @wasley_postpartumpsychosis