A Gateshead mum who lives with ADHD and autism is launching a new support service for children and young people going through the same things.
Lella Anthonya Halliwell, 37, has also been nominated for an award at the 2023 National Diversity Awards, sponsored by ITV News, marking out that she is a positive role model. Her new non-profit organisation - called AUThentically Autistic - will she hopes provide a service she would have really valued when she herself was young and struggling.
Lella, who lives in Bensham, lost her dad aged just four, and has struggled with a range of mental health issues. She explained how her own mental health difficulties and childhood trauma had inspired her career.
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She said: "At the age of four I lost my dad, in a car crash just a few days before my fifth birthday. It had a significant impact on me, so every year around that is quite challenging. I have suffered with anxiety and depression pretty much my whole life. I also had episodes of selective mutism, too.
"I remember doing a project in primary school about what we wanted to be when we were older. I think that was one of the first times I was able to speak at school. What I wanted to do then was to work with children who had lost parents or been bereaved at a young age."
Lella went on to study childcare at college, and worked in a children's home supporting a child who had lost both their parents. As she did this job, she had a "lightbulb moment". She said: "I remember taking them to a CAMHS [children and adolescent mental health services] appointment and being sat in the waiting room - and I remember just having this lightbulb moment and knowing I wanted to be a children's counsellor."
It's not been an easy road for her - trauma in her personal life meant at one point while she was studying the Warrington-raised woman had to take a three-hour bus to college - but she graduated with counselling qualifications before moving to the North East to be with her partner.
"And then I got my dream job," she said. "I started working in CAMHS. But unfortunately Covid hit and they weren't able to extend my contract, and my mental health really declined. Soon after, I found out I was expecting my first child, and while that was wonderful news it also came with challenges due to being autistic. I
"t's a massive life change. Of course. I was happy at the news, but also experienced really horrific panic attacks and really struggled. Lockdown had lifted, but I was having my own personal lockdown."
After a tough pregnancy and a tough birth, Lella's little boy was saved by fantastic doctors and nurses at the RVI. However, a year and a half on, she is back working and now set to do something she's always dreamed of.
She added: "It helps me to focus on something else, the hope is to provide a service to children that I never had. I know there's a massive need for services like this within the North East.
"It's a support service for neurodivergent children, young adults and their families. It's workshops covering different themes like confidence, self-acceptance and self-reliance. I will be offering counselling and support groups and different social events."
As for the award nomination, Lella said: "I didn't really understand what it was! It's lovely to see the messages people have left and it's been really uplifting for me. It's given me a lovely little boost."
Lella is in talks with organisations in Newcastle and Gateshead to find spaces to run AUThentically Autistic sessions and her hope is to work closely with schools and young people themselves to provide support. Find out more about AUThentically Autistic on social media.
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