‘All her life she looked out for people’
HUSBAND’S TRIBUTE TO WIFE WHO SET UP MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT
A GRIEVING husband has paid tribute to his “amazing” wife who set up a mental health project which has gone on to help hundreds of people.
After seeing men in her life struggling to cope with their mental health including depression and domestic abuse, Fiona Teasdale founded the Blaydon Shed in 2016.
The project offers men a comfortable, social space where they can relax, make friends and learn new skills away from the pressures of life.
It has gone on to help many struggling with anxiety, bereavement, abuse and isolation which may disproportionately affect men.
But the community was rocked after 45-year-old Fiona died on March 17 of acute renal failure after contracting sepsis.
Her beloved husband of 17 years Dean, who was by her side at the St Bede’s Unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for her final moments, has described his wife as “my world”.
He said: “She was one of those people who always made friends so easily. She was one of the finest people I’ve ever met. She was always laughing and being happy and never moaned about things.
“Fi had always wanted to do something to help men, who she felt were unsupported at difficult times in their lives.
“Both personally and professionally she was always curious about and engaged with people, and was more often than not a shoulder to cry on.
“She was my world and the person I admired the most.”
Together the couple, from Chopwell, Gateshead, ran the successful Makers Markets Craft Fairs out of Seaburn Leisure Centre between 2010 and 2013.
But Fiona’s heart was always set on helping others. Blaydon Shed started off with no funding or resources, but it was Fiona’s vision and determination that saw the project become what it is today.
Within a few months she had found premises in the basement of St Cuthbert’s Community Hall where men over the age of 18 could go along two days a week to relax, help each other, share their skills and work on hobbies.
Dean, 44, said: “We helped men
caring for partners, men with depression, anxiety, men dealing with bereavement, men who had been abused, men who were isolated.
“We have helped them to help each other get through, merely by giving them a friendly non-judgemental place to spend time together away from the pressures of life.
“Fi chaired the Shed with great foresight and humour, establishing a welcoming atmosphere for the whole community.”
She established the shed’s swap station, which provided furniture and household goods to start-up businesses and charities for a small donation, as well as a successful women’s craft group.
Blaydon Shed gathered more than 200 members during this period, taking referrals from more than 70 local agencies and operated as a hub for them to cooperate.
In 2019 she started up a Christmas parcel scheme to provide presents to struggling families and individuals nominated by the community, all delivered by volunteers in Santa and elf costumes.
Blaydon Shed was forced to close its doors as the country went into lockdown in March last year following the outbreak of coronavirus.
Dean says Fiona was bedbound for the majority of 2020 with a mystery illness. Before they could organise the reopening of the project, she was struck down with sepsis in January.
After bravely battling on she pulled through, only to be hit again with the condition just three weeks later.
Doctors found she had acute renal failure and she died a week later in the St Bede’s Palliative Care Unit.
Dean, who works at Costco, said: “The people over at St Bede’s were wonderful. Fiona was unconscious for her last seven days. She fought it but she couldn’t manage to stay.
“All her life she looked out for people. Having worked as a sub postmistress at the age of 20, she worked for three different banks, did plenty of temping, but wherever she went she always did everything she could to help people.
“Fi was born with a number of lifelong health conditions. Unable to hear for the first three years of her life, she learned to judge people by their actions not their words.
“Her mother, who herself was fully deaf, taught her always to look out for others.
“Her hypermobility left her prone to sprains, her polycystic kidney disease periodically made her sick uncomfortable and tired.
“She lost her mother aged 20 after a harrowing 20-year struggle with her health which left Fi with PTSD.
“But these things never stopped her enjoying life and she never used her problems as an excuse or a badge of honour. She never thought of herself in terms of them.”
Dean is determined to continue the Blaydon Shed in Fiona’s memory and has a new premises for when Covid restrictions allow the project to welcome back members.
He will spread Fiona’s ashes at a stream which runs through the grounds of the new site meaning she will be always be close to those who loved her.
He said: “I am re-establishing the shed in a new location which we picked out together during 2020, at Path Head Mill in Blaydon, where there will be lots of room for expansion and involvement with the community.
“It’s been the one thing that has kept me going – getting the project back up and running in her memory.
“I will do my best to keep it going and to do her proud.”