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Writer's pictureLilyAnne's Coffee Bar

Trevor's Story and why he developed the 6 Weeks to Better Wellbeing

Created LilyAnne's Wellbeing within Hartlepool in 2017, he used to run and manage the coffee shop and support elements  but that all changed back in 2021 when Trevor was hit with his own physical and mental health challenges.

 

Trevor is an accredited counsellor accredited with the accredited counsellors, coaches, Psychology, psychothreapists and hypnotherapists as a senior member, and is qualified and insured within counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy. 

These days he pops in to share a coffee with friends and hopes for the best when it comes his own mental and physical health. ​

In 2017, his initial plan was to open a coffee shop that supported the local community. he soon found a gap within local homelessness, mental health and loneliness services.

He wanted to offer a place where people could go to open up free from judgement and to be supported to improve their feelings of wellbeing.

In 2021 he was hit with his own challenges and developed after catching Covid-19 which became long covid, He almost never made it.

 

After this he faced a number of life threatening challenges and was diagnosed with severe allergy asthma which was caused by the long covid.

 

This soon turned into  fibromyalgia  diagnosis which completely effected Trevor's ability to continue working in his role, this became worse when February 2024 Trevor again nearly lost his life and was rushed to hospital for life saving treatment. 

He was diagnosed with Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes something which had been caused and created by the effects of Long Covid. 

 

Specialists told Trevor that had he not been admitted to hospital that day, he wouldn't have been here by the weekend. 


There have been times within the last number of years where he has thought it would be better not to be here, wanting to go for a walk and not come back, especially knowing how his physical health has had a life changing effect on his life and health which has affected his ability to serve customers, run the coffee shop and manage his team. 

 

Training as a counsellor, and focusing on learning new skills has enabled Trevor to keep going, he is not able to offer this support to others when he is having really bad days, but has been able to use his experience to help others within similar situations. 

 These days trevor suffers extreme brain fog, chronic body pain, over sensory and often struggles to cope with daily life, but he remains positive and still try to help others where he can with his kind and caring nature. 

He is no longer able to run the coffee shop he created or serve customers because of his health but the things that have kept him here and going are good self care, learning his triggers and how to cope with these and light physical activity.


He often pops back into LilyAnne's Wellbeing for a coffee and to socialise with the people he set out to support within this journey.

He handed over all of his official roles within the coffee shop to other team members, appointed a new manager and a board of trustees to look after the place.

He remains passionate about supporting others and still supports a number of projects within the mental health side of things, but this has massively reduced to support his own health and wellbeing. 

The environment he created now enables him to support himself with his own health conditions and his own wellbeing, those who he once supported have become part of his own support network. 


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