Simon Thomas

What's something you wish someone had asked you when you were struggling?

loads of amazing bits of wisdom i had some very unhelpful things as well but that's that's the um i think the most helpful thing that someone said to me and it's really really simple i always say this to people now if they ever come to me and they just simply said nothing will be the same again but things can and will be good again

Now, when I first heard that, I'm like, I can't see how they're possibly, I know they're never going to be the same again, but I cannot ever see how they're going to be good again.

But as sure as night followed day, eventually, you will feel that sun on your back again, that little bit of warmth on your shoulder.

You might dive bomb again afterwards.

and it was that and it was such a and i heard one or two people say and it came from people who knew they'd been through something similar and of course you latch on to people who know what they're talking about it's not that what everyone else said was like oh you don't know what you're talking about sometimes it was that but when this this guy said listen it's never gonna be the same again but it can be good again that was that kind of light bulb moment where i thought i'm not settling for second best for the rest of my life not settling for a kind of black and white painting version of life

Bit by bit, I want the colour to come back in whatever shape that takes.

So that was the thing I hung on to most.

And you said there was a couple of things that weren't helpful.

What was unhelpful?

It was a phrase that I had said to me so many times.

A lot of it was online.

A lot of it was on Facebook when I put posts up or on Instagram.

And I don't think it comes from a place of people being deliberately unhelpful.

But it was always the same, be strong.

Be strong.

And I was like, what the hell does that look like in a situation like this?

Because right now, a victory for me is to get to the end of the day.

And I've got Ethan up.

I've got him to school.