We try to make things better
Meet the duo behind a new app to help you through lockdown
FEATURING upbeat and “down to earth” video content, live streams, downloads, self-help courses and interviews with wellbeing experts, the girls aim to give people easy tools to help overcome everyday struggles.
The idea came after both women faced a nightmare start to 2020, even before Covid struck.
They were each left devastated by the loss of their close friend, BBC presenter Stephen Clements, whose sudden death on January 6 last year stunned people right across Northern Ireland.
Living just five minutes apart in Belfast, the girls supported each other through the first tough months of their grief and later when their businesses suffered due to lockdown.
Cate (44), who co-hosted a show with Stephen and still presents part-time for Q Radio, also runs Quirky Weddings, a bridal marketing business.
Ciara has her own make-up academy Ciara Daly Makeup on Belfast’s Lisburn Road.
Both businesses were virtually wiped out by lockdown and for Ciara in particular it was a difficult time as she also struggled with depression.
A search for help with her illness opened her eyes to the need for better information for people struggling with mental health on just what support is available to them.
This led to the two girls coming up with the idea of The Life Lounge.
Ciara (42), who is a single mum to Jay (13) and Darcy (12), explains: “Cate and I are best buddies but only got to know each other after Stephen’s death.
“Just the sheer shock of what happened led us to reach out to each other and as we just live five minutes away from each other we were able to ‘bubble’ and go for walks and lunches together during lockdown.
“Covid was catastrophic for my business. I had the stress of not earning and also I am a landlord to people in my building who weren’t earning either, so I had that pressure.
“All the special events, weddings and classes I had booked were cancelled and even when things opened again, no one was getting their make-up done because there were no special occasions.
“I was grateful though that I was able to diversify and take some stuff online and I had my make-up range which I could continue to sell online.”
However a combination of her grief and business pressure did takes its toll and Ciara found herself physically and mentally worn out during the summer months.
Having been prone to depression before, she decided this time after medication failed, that she would get to the bottom of it.
She was surprised to be diagnosed with the condition Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder which causes severe depression in the week or two before a period.
Her battle to get better gave her an insight into the challenges people with mental health face in simply trying to find the right support and it was this which planted the seeds for The Life Lounge.
She explains: “I had a really tough time with depression over the summer.
“I had been on medication that didn’t work and decided to pay to get a private consultation with a gynaecologist and a psychiatrist and I also had acupuncture.
“People told me they didn’t know that they could book a private appointment with a consultant and get it so quickly which surprised me, and others were asking how I knew acupuncture could help.
“I believe the words ‘mental health’ are thrown about too easily and people are told they just need to talk but sometimes it’s not that simple.
“I felt there must be different things we could all do collectively to help our wellbeing and
as Cate’s company organises events I asked her if there was an event we could set up and it grew from there.”
Cate was similarly struggling with low mood and after Stephen’s death had received thousands of messages from people who also had lost someone through suicide.
She recalls: “Stephen’s death was such a shock and after it everything unravelled in the world, never mind in my life.
“Just as I was starting to get back to work the pandemic struck and we went into lockdown. My company is a marketing business for bridal firms and the wedding industry came to a standstill.
“I do holiday shifts at Q Radio and there was no one going on holiday. I did three shifts over Christmas and was really glad of them.
“As horrendous as it has been, on the positive side I took the time to rest. When you are self-employed it can be a fulltime job just looking for work and I had no pressure to do that.
“I found myself in a state of complete numbness as if I had been desensitised from everything.
“After Stephen’s death everything was a blur, and I had a lot of people coming into my life to help me and I made a lot of new friends. I had people appearing from nowhere to help, and from that point it has been amazing.
“The weirdest part was that my grief was so public and in some ways that made it easier and in other ways it made it harder.
“Whenever I was out before lockdown people would just come up to me and start talking about Stephen and I would have ended up in tears in the taxi on the way home.
“I got thousands of messages from people who had experience of suicide in their family or among friends who wanted to talk to me about it.”
The girls used their ‘bubble’ time together to bounce ideas off each other on how they could help others going through similar struggles.
The Life Lounge was launched at the beginning of January. It followed months of careful planning during which the girls had a series of videos professionally recorded to inspire people.
They aim to post one a day, every day in January to offer inspiration and an instant pickme-up for anyone who is struggling during lockdown.
Keeping their videos ‘real’ and fun is very important to
both Cate and Ciara who have a natural, upbeat approach as they interview specialists in the wellbeing field or simply sit around the kitchen table chatting.
Ciara says: “We will be posting something every day in January to help people get through lockdown. Life Lounge is a community-based app and looks a bit like a Facebook page allowing people to post and interact.
“We will have a series of interviews with people who specialise in health and wellbeing such as hypnotherapy, yoga and nutrition, which members can access at any time.
“The community part is so important as it is about local people who are all speaking the same language.
“The idea is that we understand the past year has been rough but now we are looking at how we can make things better in 2021 in what will be a very down to earth, relatable way.
“At the end of the day we are all in the same boat. Stephen appeared to have it all – a dream job, lovely family, and a big smile and people asked how could that happen to him. It just shows underneath we are all the same and we all need support to get through.”
Whether you are struggling with low mood, loneliness, going through grief, divorce or a break-up, whatever your personal challenge, the girls hope The Life Lounge will provide light relief as well as daily inspiration, encouragement and practical tools to help you to cope.
Discounts from some of the wellbeing services and experts featured on the app will also be available to members including free access to Ciara’s online make-up course which usually costs £60.
Cate adds: “We just want the app to help make people’s day a bit better and help them to feel they are not alone even though they are stuck at home right now. We are only getting started as we have so many ideas for developing it further.
“We want people to be able to relate to us so we are not sitting like two dolly birds dressed up for the camera, we are just real.”
Within a few days of its launch The Life Lounge already has 450 subscribers.
Ciara and Cate have ambitious plans to continue to develop the app even further next year with more content.
‘We are only starting, we have so many ideas’
It costs £4.99 a month to be a member of The Life Lounge which can be downloaded from your local app store