So, why do I want an allotment? Well, who wouldn’t?
Mostly I have an allotment because being outside is so very good for my mental health. I don’t have a garden (well, not a private one – I live in a flat with a communal garden that is overlooked by a busy road) and I am not usually well enough to go traipsing around the countryside.
However, being a single mother with various physical health struggles, as well as the mental health ones, and being painfully averse to asking for help, this has made my time as an allotmenteer rather challenging.
Several years ago, one of the few actually supportive GPs I have seen over the years urged me to return to rheumatology to see if I could get some help with the debilitating health issues I had been experiencing since about a year after my seven year old child had died. I was nervous about going, since decades of mental ill health, chronic fatigue and other vague physical health issues had taught me that seeing a doctor was unlikely to bring help, …