Debbie.

Debbie was a mother, a wife, a sister and a friend. She was the person other people called when things were hard. She was bright, capable, and present — until, in her late forties, something began to change in ways no one around her could quite name.

The signs were there — sleep that didn't restore, a mood that didn't lift, a body that no longer felt familiar — but the language to describe what was happening, and the medical understanding to treat it, was not where it needed to be. By the time we knew enough to ask the right questions, it was too late.

We have to make sure other families know what we didn't.

The Debbie Gaunt Foundation exists because the gap between what is known about perimenopause and mental health in research circles and what is talked about in living rooms, GP rooms and clinics is still too wide. Closing that gap is our work. It is the only thing that makes a loss like this mean something.

If you've found your way here today, thank you for caring enough to read. If you would like to keep close to the work being done in Debbie's name, you're warmly invited to subscribe — or, if today is heavy, to reach out for help.