I found the warrior mum in me and came out fighting
TRACY Gilmour knows only too well how life can take a dramatic turn for the worse.
She went from a well-paid job to living on the breadline. Then her partner Mark was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
But Tracy has turned her life around and used her experience to help empower other women in the fight against child poverty.
Tracy, 41, who is mum to Ella, four, and 11-year-old Niamh, was a social worker and mental health officer.
After suffering depression, she had to battle to go back to work after maternity leave. But a year after returning, she resigned.
Tracy, of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, said: “I felt the job no longer suited me and my priorities as a mum or my mental health.”
Months after she resigned in 2016, the family were dealt a major blow when her partner Mark, 43, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which meant he couldn’t continue his work repairing aircraft.
Tracy said: “I went from a good salary to living in poverty on benefits. From two full-time wages, I went to struggling to make ends meet and keeping my head above water.”
Tracy decided to focus on setting up social enterprise the Warrior Mum Project, fighting child poverty through empowering mums.
She’s now a member of the West Coast Accelerator programme, who offer help to learn how to build a sustainable business.
Tracy said: “I opened a community hub that supported women who fell through the gaps of traditional services. I also ran workshops and programmes, all while working my backside off to get off benefits. We need to feel like warriors internally – if you don’t, everything around you falls to pieces.”
●www.warriormumproject.com