A MUM whose teenage daughter suffers from severe mental ill health has started a group to help other parents in a similar situation

Vicky Cammack, 37, founded In This Together so parents can offer each other face to face support and although it has only been running for a matter of months it has just been awarded a £5,000 grant to help it grow .

“It brings parents and carers together to make new friends, find emotional and moral support in a safe, non-judgemental and confidential environment," she told the Adver. “Our long-term goal is to open a counselling centre for children and young people.”

Vicky, whose 14-year-old daughter Shannon suffers from severe and social anxiety, is applying her own experience to run the group.

She said: “My sister, Zoe, has three children who all suffer with severe anxiety and social anxiety.”

The group helps parents of children with issues ranging from depression to self-harming and suicidal thoughts.

She said parents often bore the brunt when their children had to mask their emotions at school and they often felt isolated, not listened to exhausted and a failure as a mum or dad.

Volunteers had their first peer-to-peer group meeting in July of this year and already there are plans to increase the sessions from twice a month during school hours, to three times with an evening session.

“We go into schools for coffee mornings, to meet staff, parents and carers,” she said. “After our first coffee morning, we were asked whether we can run a monthly support group at Mountford Manor Primary School. They have agreed to let us run a group for parents and carers of pupils and are letting us use their family room.”

The group is working towards registering as either a community interest company or a charitable incorporated organisation.

Vicky of north Swindon explained: “We do not receive any funding from anywhere. Everything we have done this year has been in our own time and at our own expense. Parents can contact us on our Facebook.”

In this Together has just been awarded £5,000 by Wiltshire Community Foundation from its main grant fund.

“We have been approved as a good cause by the Swindon Community Lottery – so we really hope that people will buy tickets from our webpage once it’s ready, to help us achieve the things that we want to achieve,” said Vicky.

With additional funding from the Swindon Community Lottery, the group hopes to produce information packs for children and young people containing sources of support that they can turn to.

The group of parents would also like to pay Swindon and Gloucestershire Mind to run their self-harm programmes in secondary schools.

The next meeting is at The Link Centre on November 14, from 10am to noon.