Helping myself by helping others...

To be a selfless person, is sometimes a hard task... I do not actively try to be a selfless person, but more often that not my personality directs me in that way.

I guess I am this way because I grew up with 'nothing', so understand what it is like to be disadvantaged and empathise... Then I think back to when I was a small child, I must have been around 3 or 4 and the news was on.
There was a story about children starving in Bosnia due to the war going on...I remember getting very upset about this and crying to my mum saying it wasn't fair.. even at this young age I was aware and empathised with those in a worse off position.

My mother however off in her little world as she is, has also been a 'caring' person (I use this word loosely). An example of this is when I was a young girl she would tell me of plans of filling up a massive truck full of food and taking it over to Africa to help the people there... a lovely dream but completely unattainable in her position and sadly would have very little effect.. I suppose her heart was in the right place.

 I wonder if this is why I try and help those in need, although I think I would be delving into a psychological
 analysis of my personality if I thought about it too much.

All I am aware of, it that by doing what I do and helping others, in turn helps me. A fellow Care Leaver that I have contact with, also feels the same, she has been able to move forward in her life and deal with issues because she is helping others.

I enjoy sharing my experiances, and the more I share the easier and less painful it becomes. Since my blog has become public I have had alot of positive responses from charties, freinds, family and complete strangers... One charity has appoached me and asked me to join their advisory team Stepping Up UK. I was amazed that my voice was wanted to be heard and was so important to them.

I have chosen to support this charity, not only because of the passion of Angela but also the positive projects they are carrying out. The one that stood out to me was their mentoring project. While at Univeristy of Leciester I was a Care Leaver Mentor, who would work on their outreach projects with Looked After Children and now I unoffically mentor a couple of Care Leavers.When I say mentor I mean, I talk to them and give them advice when I can and just be there for them. I know this has a positive effect not only the Care Leavers but also myself.

As I have mentioned before in my words, it takes one person to make a positive difference to a young persons life, one person for them to be proud of and one person to change the outcome of a care leaver.

Could you be that one person? I know I am for at least two people in my life...









Contact details for Stepping Up UK
http://steppingupuk.org.uk/ https://twitter.com/#!/stepping_up_uk