(image: Eleanor Segall, 2006)

This is me aged 17.

One year and a half after my bipolar 1 diagnosis and after a hospitalisation.

On holiday with friends in Spain and already on medication to stabilise my mental health. So many children now are on waiting lists for NHS CAMHS to even get to see a psychiatrist.

It is my hope and prayer that the government fund mental health services and improve access to healthcare. Or people will die from suicide or become hugely unwell.

I support the work of Mind and Rethink Mental Illness in highlighting and campaigning for this.

I was in the Priory North London adolescent unit in 2004 which was funded by the NHS and I had so much help after a mixed bipolar episode became psychosis. The psychiatrists were so caring.

We need more support for the next generation. Please to the UK government- fund CAMHS NHS services!

Eleanor x