Looking back over the ten years of Wellbeing for Life (WBFL), we wanted to catch up with previous clients to see how they are nearly a decade later. One of these clients was Tim Duncan, a man who has accessed our service twice: the first being in 2016 following a serious health condition.
Tim had a difficult year with a serious illness that resulted in open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve. Following this, he was really struggling with his mental and physical health and this led to him leaving his job. Tim then went to the Citizens Advice Bureau for help, who signposted him to a Community Hub in Chester-le-Street from where he was put in touch with WBFL.
When first accessing the service, Tim wasn’t eating healthily and was “piling on weight” following his operation. His goals were to start eating healthier and exercising more. Tim says of this time: “My body had gone through quite an ordeal with the open-heart surgery, and I was, sort of, letting go.”
Speaking of his experience with WBFL in 2016, Tim says: “I was really amazed at the level of support the practitioner was giving me. Not only someone to talk to, advise, and encourage me without any judgment; but the information she was bringing along.”
This practitioner was Julie Stobbart, now a Coordinator at WBFL. The two would meet again a few years later after what Tim describes as “a bit of a blip.” After certain challenges in his life, Tim reconnected with Julie and went through another group of sessions. He said of this support: “I cannot thank Julie enough. She’s opened my eyes to different ways of improving my eating, my exercise and my overall wellbeing.”
Tim has lost quite a considerable amount of weight since then. He admits that he has had ups and downs where he’s put weight on, but he says of this: “I have the tools and the knowledge to get that off now.”
Some of the advice Julie gave him which he still uses to this day is around exercise. Tim has been in and out of the gym, as he never really enjoyed it. Julie encouraged him to start with walking; but walking in a safe way, where people would be and with places to sit down. This is because there was some initial anxiety with this, naturally, due to Tim’s heart problems. He said: “I had a lot of anxiety; I have throughout my life. And obviously with the heart operation, that increased it.”
Now, amazingly, Tim is walking between 12,000 to 15,000 steps a day. He’s completed a number of five km runs. Tim said of this: “Which I wouldn’t even have dreamed of before I came to the service.”
Tim opened up about some of the challenges he has experienced over the years. He realised he has been a “big overeater” throughout his life. More recently, Tim has been diagnosed with ADHD. Talking about this diagnosis, he said: “That was an eye-opener, but it’s enlightened me into why I have these challenges in my life.”
On top of being given the confidence to go out and exercise, Tim has also used what he learned with the WBFL to stop drinking alcohol. While Eatwise is all about balance, Tim has taken this further as this was one of the main contributing factors to his bad food choices. It has helped him to positively move forward with his weight-loss journey and improving his overall wellbeing.
To round of Tim’s story off, here is a message from him to WBFL: “Overall, I can’t thank WBFL [enough]. You know, it’s changed my life. I hope it continues for a long time, and you help a lot more people.”
Wellbeing for Life is part of Adult Wellbeing Services and is delivered in partnership by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) and the Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP).
