Please say a warm hello to first-time contributor Natalya Hero, a 28-year-old woman from Brighton who has suffered from Bipolar Disorder and co-morbid Borderline Personality. She has lived with Bipolar symptoms since the age of 13, so her memories of growing up include hallucinations, bland waiting rooms and what seemed like an endless procession of pills. Forced to drop out of education at 14 due to her mental health challenges, she has since travelled, painted, written and photographed her way through an unusual life. In 2012, she was asked on-site for a first person account of psychosis for a drama production by BBC Radio 4.

About this photo: “I took this picture on the beach in Brighton last year, during the last days of a long, happy, salt-streaked summer. In Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, when mermaids die they become sea foam. I imagined, as the sea rushed around my feet, that the spirit of a mermaid had just flown from her glimmering, fish-tailed body and ascended to the crest of the falling wave.”  

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