I was so delighted to be invited to address MPs and peers at the first All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting on menopause last month. An APPG takes evidence from a host of different people and organisations and then prepares a report that (usually) calls for some form of action. (You can find out more about the APPG Menopause in my Menopause Revolution article.)
It was a great honour to speak on behalf of Pausitivity and be one of the organisations adding their voice to the report and I felt a huge responsibility to all the thousands of people who have downloaded our poster and the thousands of thousands who have seen it around the world.
On a more personal level, I felt as if I was also talking for the thousands of people who follow me personally on social media and read 50Sense, many of whom got in touch with such lovely messages before and after.
I discussed my own experience and how that had led to the Pausitivity campaign, as well as shared comments from others on how the #KnowYourMenopause poster has helped them.
With five other guests in a one-hour meeting, I was aware that I didn’t have much time and I didn’t want to infringe on the other speakers’ times. But I did my best to get the message across and received several wonderful messages of support from the people who watched.
Sadly, we were unable to video the meeting, which is a shame as I would have loved for you to see all the speakers’ contributions, but I understand the reasons why. There are so many fabulous campaigners and contributors still to come and everyone’s voice deserves equal focus. (The APPG did kindly send me a screenshot, however, of me in mid-flow!)
To be speaking on behalf of so many people was humbling beyond words. Thank you all for putting your trust in me. I hope I didn’t let you down.
