Dear Rebecca,

Today is world mental health day an important and poignant day for me where people all over the world come together to raise awareness about mental health and breakdown the stigma that for many comes with mental illness.

Being in an out of NHS mental health wards with you over the past 6 years has given me the insight into the suffering that mental illness can bring to someone and how it is a cruel disease which doesn’t discriminate and just like many physical diseases it takes people from us far too early in their lives.

In the week we lost you I could not sleep. My mind was swirling out of control with so many thoughts, with a sadness so deep I can’t even find the right words to explain. The many conversations that I had had with you in those hospital wards whilst you were in a deep depression and in a deep psychosis were spiralling round my head. You had so often told me what you wished people understood about mental illness and how you wanted children from a young age to understand what it meant to look after their mental health just as much as their physical health. I therefore tried to channel those swirling thoughts going round in my head into something positive and the result of those thoughts are now the second Sophie Says book - It’s Okay Not To Be Okay

With this pandemic I don’t believe there has ever been a more important and critical time to talk to our children about mental health. So today I officially launch the second book of the Sophie Says series - Sophie Says It’s Okay Not To Be Okay in memory of you.

My dream is that this book becomes a firm family favourite and teaches the next generation how to look after their mental health and speak about their emotions.

Please help spread this message by buying a copy for your children or gifting a copy to a child that you know and let’s help pave the way for young children to live a happy life understanding ways to help their mental health and lets make Rebecca’s legacy live on!

Rebecca, even though you’re gone you’re still saving us all.

You can buy the books on Amazon or on our website www.sophiesaysofficial.com and follow us @sophiesaysofficial on Instagram

I hope you’re dancing up there with all the rainbows!

All my love 

Esther x