About Red Balloon

"Although our son had suffered from asthma since he was four, it became more severe in Year Ten resulting in a number of prolonged absences from school. His asthma we were told by a consultant may have been psychosomatic. It was during Year 10 that Ross told us that he was being bullied. We immediately contacted the school and it appeared to be sorted.

One morning in late October 2005 our life changed. Ross mentally collapsed and later told us that he had been persistently methodically and systematically bullied at the hands of his peers. They had 'sent him to Coventry', threatened him and he had become a social outcast. He had tried to deal with it on his own. As a result my wife gave up her job and from then on we knew the meaning of anxiety.

With professional help Ross's mental health improved but his educational future was bleak. During the depths of his illness he threatened to take his own life. It was at this time that we read an article about Red Balloon; a charity whose aim is the recovery of bullied children. They were looking to set up a RB in Norwich. We went to a meeting to find other families sharing a similar experience. At that meeting RB offered us a life-line: an outlet for grieving, a sharing of knowledge but most of all hope.

Ross goes full-time to RB-Norwich. He has bad days but the staff understand him, are sympathetic and he thrives. He enjoys the support, the one-to-one tutorials, group sessions, and the security. He has grown from an uncertain young boy lacking self-esteem to a young adult with growing confidence and maturing responsibility. Our thanks to all at RB".

I loved school. It was the best way to spend my time and I had so much fun. I was set to do 11 GCSEs, all A-B predicted grades.

But of course nothing good can last forever. There are some very spiteful and selfish people out there who choose to ruin life for the rest of us. Have you ever felt so terrified that your body went rigid? I have. That if you try to face something, your mind and body just shut down, and you feel like death? I have. Everyday for a whole year. Every time I was dropped off at school… I just froze. I couldn't physically make myself move no matter how much I knew I had to. I as good as dropped out of school, my whole life down the pan. No school, no friends, no one to talk to, and no one could get me out of it. I spent months on end at home, and you know the biggest downer of it all was that I wanted to learn, I wanted to go back but I just couldn't.

I was a victim of the system. You keep trying to find a way out and then you hit a brick wall. I would have ended up at the medical needs unit in Cambridge when I couldn't go to school. I want to become a doctor when I'm older, but with the subjects and hours I was being offered, there was no way I could ever make it. Now I know there are other kids like me, kids who want to learn but can't face a mainstream school. We wanted to learn and we got that opportunity to get our lives back.

At Red Balloon I got that back. Instead of doing 3 GCSEs with 6 hours a week schooling, I'm doing 6 GCSEs in full time education. I've got the same subject choices as I would at a normal school, English, Maths, Science, Languages, Music, Drama, Art and IT. And because of the one-to-one lessons I find myself learning much faster and I'm a lot more focused on my work. Emotionally I still have my issues, but I'm working through that with the help of the teachers and other students at Red Balloon.

Have you ever watched your life fall apart and never thought you'd get it back? I have. Have you ever got it back? I have.