National award for Hannah  

A Baptist church member has won a national mental health award.

 
Hannah Moore of Church from Scratch in Essex achieved the ‘Outstanding Service User Achievement Award’, which is part of the National Service User Awards. 
 
The awards are designed to take notice of all the good certain service users have done and what has been made possible in a local level.
 
They were started by service users at Cygnet Hospital in Derby, and first held in 2013. With overwhelmingly positive feedback, the decision was made to make it an annual event, which has expanded each year.
 
Hannah was one of five finalists in her category, and was announced as a winner at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on 12 April.
 
‘I was so pleased and humbled to be one of the finalists, there were some really good people in there,’ she said.
 
‘But then to hear I’d won, I was both completely shocked and completely over the moon! It was really humbling and surprising.’
 
Hannah, who says she is now ‘in a really good place’, has spent much of the past decade in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Factors which have contributed to the award included working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the NHS on service users reviews; and her singing and songwriting about mental health issues, which has led to her performing at a number of conferences and providing much support to others. She says she’s always had a caring side, and wants to do what she can to support others facing mental health issues. 
 
She has been a member of Church from Scratch for more than 10 years, and Hannah stressed the importance of their support and friendship over the years. ‘Church from Scratch has been a massive part of my life and my recovery. To have people like that support me, be my friend – I wouldn’t have survived without them.
 
‘’It’s nice to give something back, and now I want to help others.’
 
Church from Scratch is proud of Hannah, and shared the following post on its Facebook page:

‘It is so right that Hannah has been recognised for all she does... she has spent the best part of 12 years within psychiatric hospitals. And despite her own challenges and difficulties she is always striving to help others through groups and events and writing and performing songs and speaking at mental health conferences.

‘Hannah has been part of CFS for 10+ years and loves to get involved in the church groups and accompany worship on guitar.
 
‘Go Hannah!’