I’m knackered.  Yesterday I did 4 gigs in one day, singing my songs for staff and patients at Fulbourn mental health hospital and at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

I’d been invited by Kimberley Iyemere, Arts Therapies Professional Lead at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT). The CPFT is unusual and wonderful in being committed to providing proper resources for music and arts therapy for their service users.

I turned up with my guitar and a speaker and sang my songs about my own lived experience. It is quite challenging but really rewarding doing mental health gigs. You never know quite what is going to happen or how people are going to react.

First I played in the fabulous music room, then on a ward for women with personality disorders, then at the Ida Darwin ward for teenagers where I met a young girl who had made me a lovely bracelet with my name on it and was learning to sing my song ‘Start Over Again’.

Then in the evening we headed to Addenbrookes Hospital where I performed for staff and patients from S3, the eating disorders unit. It was a great end to a very full-on day. I’m so glad I managed to get there through the snow.

A big thank you to Kimberley and her team for making me cups of tea and helping me lug my stuff around. I’ll be back in Cambridge for a gig at The Junction on Saturday 12 May.

The photos are of me with some of the lovely staff at Fulbourn Hospital – Dr Jorge Zimbron and Lee Davies, and Kimberley Iyemere.