We catch up with Dr Richard Stephens from our first ever Achieving Your Potential course at the University of Manchester

For the best part of thirty years I was a (not especially happy) bio-scientist in academia, and it was in this role that I first encountered Result CIC. I was suffering with severe mental health problems as a result of early career stress which snowballed into a chronic condition. Result CIC’s “Achieving your Potential” course made me appreciate three things:

a. I could be so much more than I was
b. I could affect how disabled I was  
c. I saw a future for myself in the third sector

After re-locating to Cambridge, and unsuccessfully attempting to continue my academic career, severe depression brought me into contact with the Richmond Fellowship employment service, who specialise in assisting those with mental health iss ues to find and stay in employment. In turn, RF introduced me to a local mental health charity called Illuminate, established ten years ago by two coaches, Sam Greenley and Maria Varallo. They run a four-day course called “Confidence for Change”, which really turned me around, plus it had the happy long-term result of putting me in touch with Maria and Sam. 

I’m now part of the Illuminate team, developing and delivering mental health awareness training courses, helping line-managers cope with staff who have mental health problems and giving them the tools to help prevent short term problems from snowballing into chronic illness. This is a labour of love for me given my history and my desire to work in the charity sector, but the person I was before I came to Result CIC would never have had the vision to take this leap into the unknown.

More information about Illuminate can be found at illuminatecharity.org.uk.