While suffering from postnatal depression, Teri Elder found getting out in nature cleared her head. Now she’s helping others do the same, thanks to National Lottery players

HAVING your first baby should be the happiest time, but Teri Elder, 33, from Stoke-on-Trent, found herself suffering anxiety and postnatal depression.

It was 2016 and Teri was two months from her due date when she learned that her partner, Andy, had bladder and kidney cancer. “He developed pneumonia and we were told he wasn’t going to live,” she recalls. “Suddenly I wasn’t thinking about the pregnancy any more, it was all about my partner because I thought I’d lose him.”

So when baby JessieLea arrived, Teri felt overwhelmed at becoming a new mum.

“I just remember thinking, ‘What do I do?’ I was lost. For about six months I didn’t want to do anything at all.”

Then, out of the blue, Teri decided enough was enough. “One day I thought, ‘I need to get up for my daughter; I need to do something.’ So I got her buggy and a backpack and started walking.

“It helped me just being outside in nature.”

Wondering if there were others like herself who might benefit from a good walk and a chat, Teri put a post on Facebook, and the response was amazing.

Fast forward to 2022 and there’s a lot to celebrate. Not only has Andy, now 41, been in remission for five years, but Teri’s little walking group has taken on a life of its own. enterprise, Walk Talk Action receives National Lottery funding, and has helped over 500 people, including service veterans, with issues such as PTSD, anxiety, midlife crisis and postnatal depression.

It is also now taking part in Happy and Glorious, a National Lottery-funded project organised by the New Vic Theatre in Newcastleunder-Lyme to mark the Platinum Jubilee. It’s just one of the amazing projects made possible by National Lottery players, who raise over £30million each week for good causes.*

“I’m really grateful for the funding,” says Teri. “We’ve helped so many people get to a better state of mind through walking, talking and taking action.”

To mark the Jubilee, Walk Talk Action is restoring a two-acre site in Stoke-onTrent, creating a little oasis where people can spend some time away from it all in nature. “It’ll be a wild garden that people can visit to recuperate, have a cuppa, try journalling – or even some weeding!” says Teri.