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The Wizards cast a spell on me! Michelle Noonan was overwhelmed by depression, PTSD and panic attacks – until she decided to give her local jogscotland group a try Three years ago I was really overweight, nearly 17 stone, and my mental health wasn’t good. I’ve got depression and PTSD and I’d get panic attacks too, so I didn’t go out. I hated my picture getting taken and I certainly would never think about doing any exercise. The turning point was when I had to go and buy a suit jacket for a funeral and I had to get a size 22 and I just thought “I can’t be this size any longer, I can’t do this.” So I started eating better, and went to Slimming World. My daughter was talking about going to the gym, but I’d had previous experience of gyms and found the classes weren’t really tailored for people of different abilities. So I said “I don’t mind going to something, but not a gym”. I think we did a search online and found Kirkcaldy parkrun, so we gave it go. I really enjoyed it – I was exhausted, and I think my time was 50-odd minutes. But I loved the atmosphere, parkrun is for everybody, all sizes, all shapes. So we kept on and then I saw a poster for jogscotland group Kirkcaldy Wizards. The Wizards sessions are free, which was a key thing because at the time I didn’t have a lot of money. I emailed back and forth with the leaders four or five times before going along, because I was so scared. Then I turned up to my first week and it was freezing cold, and they were doing a pyramid hill session! I thought “What have I done?”! I had to walk most of it, but I had some really good, supportive people that were going at my pace, and I was giving it my all. Improving was a slow, gradual process because I didn’t go into it with the mindset that I wanted to
