Ian Mortimer Participant and Tutor Age 53 Rayleigh, Essex

I learned about Expert Patients Programme Community Interest Company (EPP CIC)  through my wife who runs two NHS primary care centres for South-East Essex PCT. She met an EPP CIC employee who was hiring rooms in one of the centres to run an EPP CIC course. I attended and successfully completed the Chronic Disease Self-Management Course in 2009, to help manage both my spinal pain and depression.

I first damaged my spine in a gardening incident when I was 17. I tried to lift something that was too heavy and heard a crack. I later learned that the crack was a lumbar disc. I had all sorts of treatments over the years but first had an operation in 1987. In 1994 I had some more pain both in the lower back and in my neck. I thought the lower back was of more concern but MRI scans proved me wrong. Apparently I have a degenerative spine and this time it was a cervical disc that had given up. I had an operation to remove the disc and to fuse the vertebrae together, using a quantity of bone from my hip to maintain the spacing of the vertebrae. In 2004 the lumbar pains I had been feeling back in 1994 returned and the L5 disc had to be removed.

I have also lived with clinical depression for many years. It was diagnosed after the death of my mother at the age of 51. This was followed by the deaths in close succession of my grandparents and my aunt. I had been very close to all of them and, in spite of having very strong support from my wife and children, it hit me hard.

When I heard about EPP CIC I felt that I was self-managing quite well and hadn’t a great deal to learn. My main motivation for attending the course was to become a tutor so that I could occupy my time while I looked for more consultancy work. I started the course as a sceptic but was soon converted.

I think the breathing and relaxation techniques had the most direct effect on me. I learned that valuing myself was very important and I had reinforced in me the importance of good communications. It was also absolutely key to understand that the people standing at the front actually did themselves understand what it was like to live with a long-term condition. While we all had different specific conditions, there was a common base of experience and sympathy. I believe that it is one of EPP CIC’s greatest strengths that we all share that common experience.

There were others on the course whose outlook clearly changed for the better. The effect that the course had on two people in particular made me realise that tutoring was something I actively wanted to do rather than just as a fill-in. Seeing that sort of change convinced me that the course, with its good sense and community atmosphere, has the potential to do a great deal of good. Equally it has the potential to lift the burden of care and support currently on carers and other professionals by encouraging people to manage their own conditions and to recognise their achievements in doing so.

As well as becoming an EPP CIC tutor I set up an IT consultancy in June 2008 after being made redundant from a senior IT post in a London media and publishing company. I have never been more relaxed and happy in my working life than I am now. The little victories that we see each week on EPP CIC courses brings a huge amount of satisfaction. I would describe myself as an evangelist for EPP CIC at the moment and it is not because I have to be. I am just convinced that it is extremely important that people that live with life-changing conditions recognise that they are still valuable, capable people who still have a great deal to give to and get from life.