British Heart Foundation Run

Heart Runners

Mercedes
When I found out that my dad died from Coronary Heart Disease, I automatically wanted to help others who are suffering from the same disease. I started to do some research online and came across an event held by the British Heart Foundation,  it was to run 5km at the Tower of London and raise as much money as possible. I signed up for this for a fee of £13 and then created my online dontation page- www.justgiving.com/MercedesWrighton93. After the race it made me feel really good about myself that I was raising money to help others and I find this to be a good coping mechanism.          

                                                                      Jamie-Lee 
Due to working alongside with Mercedes for this project and being a close friend of hers I wanted to be supportive, so by doing so i also joined up for the BHF 5km run. On the day we managed to run together around the track, and this also made me feel good about myself as I was doing something that would raise money to help people suffering with this problem. 

Donating to a good cause

Creating this donation page meant that we could raise as much money as

 possible for our chosen charity we set a target of £500, we shared the link on

  our social media pages to get as many donations as possible, we only ended up making half of our target which didn't matter as everything helps, and £250 can be a great help to our chosen charity.

Final poster 2

Final Poster 1

Our project is about giving advice and also about us learning about ways of coping. This poster is quite basic due to the topic being serious and trying to advise others.


This poster gives positive words and ways of dealing with difficult situations, adding our blog URL at the bottom just also allows people to visit it to and see how we have created this project and to also show others how we cope.  

Final Poster 2 progess

Here we have used our originally image of our letters placed on grass and added animated images of ways you can couple for example, talking to people, exercising and mediation. 

Poster process

The process of making our final poster, we decided to use one of the images that we took while taking a stroll along the River Thames. Firstly, we edited the image by matching 16 colours which were shown to get it the effect that it has. Then we decided to test out different fonts, choosing the correct font for our topic that we are trying to get across to people is important as we want people to take this seriously. Adding positive strategies that people should try  as these are the ones that we have found to be the best ways to cope with difficult situations. For the colours of the text on our poster we went for the eye drop tool and picked colours that where on our image to make it all connect and a colour scheme of grey, black, blue and orange.

Font Ideas

Here are some font designs that we downloaded from http://www.dafont.com, We went for a bubbly font at first to make it catchy to the eye but then we realised  that it needed to be a little bit more smarter looking due to our topic being very serious and dealing with personal problems. The font that we thought was most appropriate and decided that we would use on our poster was 'Caviar Dreams'. 

Coping Strategy- Taking a afternoon walk

Our afternoon stroll along the River Thames, was a chance to try out a new strategy of trying to cope our own personal issues. This was a chance for us to have a chat about problems that we were worrying ourselves about and by getting fresh air, plus exercise. Seeing such pretty views and capturing them in these photography's makes us also realise what a beautiful country we live in and how lucky we are to live so close to these landscapes. We both also felt that taking a walk was a good strategy to us as we both had a friend to talk to while doing it and our minds drifted away from all the worry, we were both supportive and have continued this as a new hobby to do once a week.

How I cope- Mercedes

I have a number of ways of coping my main one is keeping busy, but also remembering the person in a certain way.  I like to light a candle on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas' and Fathers day.  When I am doing something like a test or something where I need a little extra luck I always wear my dads earrings as a good luck charm and it is also very comforting.  Lastly, as a coping mechanism for myself and my family is a bench, we bought a bench shortly after our dad passed which is somewhere we can go to vent to and share our problems.

Ways I cope- Mercedes

I find one of the best ways to cope for myself is to keep busy and do things.  I find cleaning highly therapeutic and keeps my mind busy from thinking about certain things. On a Saturday when my mum is at work I clean the whole house, upstairs and downstairs,I find it the best coping method for me. 

Being Creative with the Letters

Putting the letters against a brick wall, changing the filter when taking the pictures to make the letters look brighter.

Lastly, we put our letters on the stairs going up to represent positivity.

Being Creative with the Letters

We came up with the idea of going out and taking pictures of our letters around natural habitats. Firstly we went up the river and displayed our letters on each step in order to get a modern day background in it. 

Secondly, we used a land of grass to display our letters to get a more natured affect to our picture, we also try to place them in a large tree but we felt this didn't work as one of us had to hold some of the letters as they keep falling.

Being Creative with the letters

Being Creative with the Letters

We decided to get photos of us with our hand made letters in order to express ourselves whilst also having fine as we are trying to create a positive campaign. 

Poster Idea 2

 Here are three poster designs using the same image, but with the text 'routine' positioned in different places. This idea was discovered through Jamie-Lee's OCD that she is having to deal with on a daily basis, everything has to be neat and in order. We have tested out different font colours to see which one stood out the most, our final one is going to be the the bottom left hand one with the multi-coloured letters in order for the word routine to stand out. 

Poster Idea 1

Together we created this poster using illustrator we have used words that we most think that people suffer with who need to use coping strategies to get through life.  The clouds in the background represent happiness and positivity.  

                             

Ways I cope - Jamie-Lee

A major part of my OCD is the organisation of everything in my house from being the tins in the cupboard, stuff on the shelves, food in my fridge and etc. Here is two images of my fridge that I re organise on a daily bases due to my family members moving things and also things being added or taken away from it.  My bedroom is my pride of joy as this is were the OCD takes place throughout the day making sure everything is clean and things are put in the correct spaces they originally came from. By doing this daily it makes me feel good and I can get on with other things day  about it when its completed and looking to my perfection. But if I place something in another place or miss out something within my routine it will play in the back on my mind till it is done.

My OCD doesn't just affect me in my home, also at work and when I'm just casually out. When i am out of my house, I know that people around me notice my mental health issue, due to work colleagues mentioning it and also trying to help me out by making the till area clean and in the order I can work with it at. What I mean here is that before I start work on the till area, all playing card boxes need to full, resale shoes and clothes needs to have just one place behind tills and also the bags for like need to be in order from extra large down to medium.

Creating 3D Letters

Creating the large 3D letters for this project, I found that this was a new way of coping with my mental health issue 'OCD'. As it made me feel relaxed and very pleased with myself from the final outcome, I managed to take my mind of everything and just have fun with it. Due to this project being based no how we cope and also other peoples strategies, I have taught myself a new way of coping.

However when it came to painting them the paint that we originally bought wouldn't stick on the letters properly and you could still see the newspaper articles underneath which we didn't like the look of or want to happen. From this we then had to paint all of them white wall paint so that the newspapers were covered completely, then when painting them again the second set of paint then worked.

Questionnaire Result

Question 7:

I find, when a lot of people are upset they tend to hide it from others, therefore by asking this question and the answers are anonymous people can be a bit more open and honest with their answers. The majority of the answers were that they know when they are upset and they try to deal with it themselves.

Questionnaire Result

Question 8:
The answers for this question had a mixture of responses over half of the people who answered feel that they are the cause of their own problems and a smart amount at 23.53% of people blame others for their problems.

Questionnaire Results

Question 6:
By having this particular question was to also help us in a way to see how others would cope through difficult times. We did not receive the same responses throughout, the answers varied from ' I am strong' to 'by staying positive.'

Questionnaire Result

Question 5:

This question is also an open answer question, with two questions divided into one. The Majority of answers I received were that peoples greatest supports seem to be their partners, I find this the case with myself too I feel comfortable confining in my partner with anything especially when I am going through difficult times.

Questionnaire Result

Question 4:

This question is our main focus as we want to know how people cope with situation, here we have noticed that there are two types of people. People who talk to others, and others like to keep busy theses are both ways of coping but in such opposite ways.

4 people marked 'Other' and the comments were:

- 'I don't have everyday difficult situations'

-'I don't think about negative things and see positive in everything i do'

-'tomorrow is another day'

Questionnaire Result

Question 3:

We decided to leave this question as an open answer to get as many different responses as possible. As you can see the majority of the answers that we had received were family and friends.

Questionnaire Result

Question 2:

We noticed that all responses where at different ages, the age groups with the highest percentages where 18-24, 25-34 and 35-44. We wasn't shocked with these results due thaw we published the survey and who had access to it, for example our Facebook is our family and friends and some people others that we know through other people.

Questionnaire Result

We created an online questionnaire, to find out how people cope with all different situations. Both of us published the link to this survey on our social media pages; Facebook,Twitter and also sending our friends and family texts with the link.

Question 1:

From 68 people filling out questionnaire, we noticed that the majority where women. Which wasn't a surprise to us as women as a whole are more opening about their feelings and problems.

Movie Night

The C Word

This is a series which was shown on BBC1 which was released May 3rd 2015, it was an hour and half long. This was a programme about her experience of cancer, based on her own popular blog which were launched not long after her diagnosis. Even though we are coping with different situation this made us release that we use similar strategies. The film is a story of life, love and cancer 

  
P.S. I Love You

This film was released in 2007, her husband suddenly dies due to having a brain tumour and she feels like life will never go on therefore withdrawing herself from her friends and family. As a part of her coping strategies she started doing things that her and her husband used to do together by him arranging it prior to his death, eventually she finds another man and can finally move on with her life after years of grieving.

Ways I cope - Jamie-lee

Of a night time I find myself thinking and worrying about problems, I will randomly some nights start cleaning, stacking or de stacking the dishwasher, sweeping the floors or re-organising my wardrobe or sorting through my things in my bedroom. As a child I have also enjoyed drawing and colouring, so one day i noticed on Instagram a short advisement on a new app for phones, it is called Colorfy. This app gives you the opportunity of what you can colour in, by completing a picture of a night, I found this relaxing and taking my mind off of craziness that goes through my head just before shutting my eyes. I believe that this is a coping mechanise and would / have advised people to download and have a go themselves to help deal with their own situations.

Releasing Ballons

Mercedes - Dad

My dad passed away on the 13th of October 2015, due to having coronary heart disease. After his funeral we released balloons in memory of him, we as a family also release balloons on special occasions. I find this a good coping mechanism as it is like you're letting your sadness go.

Jamie-lee - Friend

My friend passed away July the 13th 2015 due to being punched outside a club, and once he hit the floor he had a cardiac-arrest and passed away. A way of coping with this situation myself and a load of other people who knew him come together on certain days so his birthday we all released balloons and lit candles. However the place it happened we all placed flowers, items that symbolised him and candles to show respect and show him that we all care and being with friends it helped deal with this situation, as we was all dealing with grief.

 

Poster Inspirations

Above our a few of our poster inspirations, as you can see a lot of these posters are very informative and full of content. They are also colourful to  catch the audiences eye. 

Coping Strategies

These are methods a person uses to deal with stressful situations obtaining and maintaining good coping skills does take practice. 

Research - Coping Strategies

You are not alone: How we cope with mental illness?

This documentary is based on a range of different aged and gendered people who cope with mental illness in everyday.  Thedocumentary gives people reassurance and also help in ways to cope with illnesses they may have. This is a part of our research as people cope with different things in life, and has shown us how people deal  in other ways and what keeps them going.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35587664?ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=twitter#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Collage of movies that we feel shows ways of coping strategies from adult movies to children animation movies. Each teaching its audience new ways of coping and dealing with similar situations. 

Research - Coping Strategies

10 Stress Busters

•    Exercise
•    Be active
•    Take control
•    Connect with people
•    Have some 'me time'
•   Challenge yourself
•   Help others
•   Try to be positive

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/reduce-stress.aspx

Coping strategies that we know work to deal with difficult and daily situation that are faced throughout life and by people, this will be researched more personally when we create our questionnaire and publish it to a wide variety to people. 

Awareness Campaigns

Researching into different awareness campaigns has shown us that they also give advice on one topic whereas we want to put across advice to any age range on ways to cope with difficult problems that may occur within life. 



Here are two campaigns that we have looked into one to do with anorexia and smoking.As you can see from these images show exactly what their campaign is about and the message that it shows to their target audience. 

Final Proposal - Coping Strategies

After our meeting with our supervisor David, he suggested that we do our project together based on coping with our two situations. We then started creating  our campaign by starting off with doing blogs,creating posters and surveys. Our initial aim is to create a campaign to help others cope in difficult situations and to research how others cope.