There’s been lots of reports on how the outdoors, green areas, gardening and nature can help with mental health. I’m lucky I live next to the Malvern Hills and can get out and about in the hills with no problems with social distancing. I’ve also got a wild garden to get lost in. My passions are mountains, rivers and the sea. I’m a bit lost without them at the moment but at least I can get out.

I do feel for those that are not so fortunate in having good access to the outdoors and do wonder how this is affecting their mental health.

My back and leg pain builds up with inactivity, fortunately, again, I’ve been able to alleviate this with early morning runs on the hills. Again how is the current situation affecting people with similar pain who are not able to get out?

I organise the Expedition section of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for a local Sixth Form Collage and I know that our students are really starting to miss getting into the hills.

I think that it’s important that people do not just wait for thins to get back to normal. They need to think about what they can do to ward off mental and physical health issues. Although I’ve always enjoyed team work I’ve also been happy being out on my own. I think that being prepared to doing stuff on your own could be an answer to getting going as lockdown is slowly lifted.

Of course talking about what YOU are doing will not only motivate yourself but others as well.

Good luck, keep active, ease your pain.