On 11^th and 18^th October, Di and I went on a parents project adventure to Leeds. We were invited by Angharad as part of the university’s first 1,000 days project, following on from when Rohan and I met them and did a presentation on the project.

It was a very early start. I got up at 5am to get to the train station. Di and I arranged to meet by Ozzy between 7 and 7.15.

When Di and I met up, we went to the passenger assist lounge so that they could help me to board with the ramp.

We had a great experience from Birmingham New Street with passenger assist, but when we got to Leeds, they didn’t realise I needed the ramp, so we had to wait for them to get it.

It was quite an adventure getting out of the station. Di and I ended up in some underground tunnel with the river flowing through it. That was great in a way, because we both love history.

We managed to find the place to get the taxi to the venue, it was so lovely to see Angharad and the team again, as well as other people involved in the project.

Day one involved meeting each other, making sure the consent forms were signed. We did an ice breaker where we had to say 2 truths, 1 wish. I thought she said witch.

We had an activity where there were different statements on the wall. There were post it notes and stickers on the table, we wrote on the post it notes our experiences and put stickers on, I made a note that they were all happy stickers no sad, angry etc.

We were given information to look through for the following week and I just said out loud instead of in my head “Woah, that’s a lot of information. I can’t read that!” Angharad apologized for it not being in easy read.

We had a great first day in Leeds.

Our second adventure to Leeds on the 18^th was even more eventful. We explained about what happened when travelling from Leeds back to Birmingham and we got put into the first class carriage. The guard on the train was not happy about this. When the tea came round, they went straight past us. Di asked and they said we are not allowed, as we were not first class passengers, so they sent the standard trolley to us.

When we arrived in Leeds, we actually found the correct entrance to leave the station, but still had trouble finding the taxi point. We found one eventually.

We asked Angharad and her team when we arrived if we could have a photo of everyone before the workshop started.

Our name badges were given out from last week and the icebreaker this time was what is your favourite cake?

I found this week more difficult as it bought things back to me. The activities were about going to playgroups and what stop parents from going. There was a tree and wrote on post it notes things to say to another parent. The one activity that really got me though was what your favourite memory of your child in there 1^st year. I couldn’t control my emotions and ended up crying and leaving the room because I have no happy memories of my son before 1 year old.

But it was great to be really involved with the workshop and help get the 1000 days project started.

On the way back from Leeds we explained what happened on the journey up and we got to sit back in 1^st class as this time we were treated right and could have drink from 1^st class trolley.

Thank you to Angharad for inviting us to be a part of the workshops we really enjoyed it, and it will be great to work with you in the future.

We got amazon gift vouchers for our parents project, thank you again it has been great to work with you.

It was great adventure with Di and getting to know my new team member.

Jennifer Brown