"These two little people need me": Grieving mum's battle to survive after her baby choked to death at nursery
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The grieving mum of a baby girl who died after choking at nursery has shared a powerful video about her mental health battles since losing her daughter.
Joanne Thompson lost her daughter Millie in 2012 and has spoken out to urge other sufferers to seek help and not struggle in silence.
In her video, which she shared as part of this week's Time to Talk Day from the mental health charity Mind, she talks of how she has had therapy and medication since losing Millie when she was just nine months old, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Following Millie's death, after she choked on food at nursery, Joanne was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety and complex grief.
(Image: MEN Media)
After a time off medication, the 32-year-old has been struggling again, and has just been prescribed anti-depressants.
She used her vlog to highlight how easy it is for depression to be an invisible illness.
She said: "You can't see when people have got mental health problems...
"Would you be able to tell from me talking now - the way I look, the way I'm talking - that right now I've got a prescription in my pocket for antidepressants that the doctor gave me."
(Image: MEN Media)
In the emotional vlog she describes how she's come to terms with the need to take them again - for the sake of her children, Leo, two, and 13-week-old Asher.
"These two little people really need their mum right now," she said. "And they need me to be as good a mum as I can be."
Joanne, 32, from Cheadle Hulme, has had a massive response to the video, which has been viewed on Facebook more than 20k times.
She said: "I wanted to support the #timetotalk awareness campaign as I am a huge advocate of talking about mental health.
(Image: MEN Media)
(Image: MEN Media)
"Through my journey I have found that talking is an amazing therapy to remind you that you are not alone in what is happening to you and there are people available to help and people who have been on a similar journey that can guide you through it.
"Talking is an essential part of therapy to help you live a happy and healthy life when you have a mental health problem, there shouldn’t be a stigma attached to it anymore and the more people that talk about it, the more that stigma will fade."
Following Millie’s death Joanne and husband Dan set up charity Millie’s Trust to teach paediatric first aid.
Jo, who also writes her own blog, Same Person, Different Me , said she'd been blown away by the response to her video.
She said: "The post has had an amazing response and I've already had a message from a lady telling me it helped her to call her doctor yesterday."