Neelam’s story: Tackling health inequalities at the heart of community.

It shouldn’t be so difficult for us to get a hearing when these are the decisions which so fundamentally shape our lives.

I suffer from some chronic health conditions, and over the years I got increasingly frustrated that issues around reproductive and mental health were being trivialised by healthcare professionals and sexualised by the ethnic community owing to outdated cultural beliefs.

That frustration turned into a conversation with others around me, and eventually into the charity which I run. Cysters is all about insisting that women, people of colour and marginalised communities have real influence over the decisions which shape their lives.

My work is all about my community in Birmingham – bringing those voices to the table and changing the conversation around reproductive and mental health. But it shouldn’t be so difficult for us to get a hearing when these are the decisions which so fundamentally shape our lives. That’s why I’m proud to be part of this campaign and ready to make big change happen.