Vote Clare for Welfare

<div class&equals;"fr-view"><p>Hi&comma; I’m Clare&comma; and unless you have seen some of my ramblings on the Disabled Students Group forums&comma; or been in the MA Music last year&comma; or even been a rep same time as me&comma; you may not know me&period; So the highlights&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>– I started and for a time chaired a Staff Ability Network and nearly won an HSJ &lpar;industry&rpar; award for working intersectionally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>– I have worked for the Department of Health with the Home Office where I have a certificate for &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ending Gangs and Youth Violence”&comma; well reduced it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>– Some years ago I finished a MSc forensic psychology with the OU&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>– Four years ago&comma; while my immunity was low&comma; I got poorly with Gall Stones&comma; had an op&comma; next day&comma; I nearly died&period; I collapsed in a hospital and had a lot of donated blood pumped back into me&period; Fibromyalgia hit&comma; endometriosis was painful&comma; and well I think that’s when the grey hairs started&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>– After the medical chaos&comma; I came back to the OU to complete a MA in Music&comma; joined and was secretary for the DSG and started as a student rep&period; It was a huge proud moment for me&comma; supporting students with benefit applications&comma; their studies and on occasion life issues from balancing children and studies&comma; work and studies and pets and studies&period; Its been the BEST experience of my academic life so far&period; It is a huge pleasure to support students in their every day lives and those I am proud to call family&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So thats me&comma; the dog owning flute and saxophone playing computer gamer who is a little too addicted to MMORPGs&comma; studying and right now pokemon&period; I’m now working in community safety as a project manager with London boroughs&comma; Oh and i’ve signed up for another degree because&comma; well&comma; why not&comma; so I’m on BA Geography switching art to science&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thats me&comma; what I am here for&quest; Your vote <img class&equals;"emoji" role&equals;"img" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;s&period;w&period;org&sol;images&sol;core&sol;emoji&sol;17&period;0&period;2&sol;svg&sol;1f642&period;svg" alt&equals;"🙂" &sol;> I’m standing for Student Welfare VP because i believe that OU students face some significant challenges to being the stars they are&comma; you are all amazing&comma; you balance life&comma; uni&comma; work&comma; families all while studying&period; Few other students can say that&period; The being remote means you are challenged in special ways with mental health challenges&comma; especially following COVID and the changes to society&period; I saw it a lot with the DSG&period; My main thing is to bolster&comma; support and enlarge the mental health support at the University&comma; but also easing off some of the negative behaviour out there which makes this harder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I had a breakdown last year&comma; I was positive not to let uni or the DSG suffer&comma; as such I still worked for the DSG and still studied&comma; as I started to heal&comma; I was able to realise&comma; we are all able to give so much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thank you in advance&period; I want to champion YOU so please do vote Clare for Welfare&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Vote Clare for VP Welfare<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-40038" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;thehootstudents&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2026&sol;06&sol;Clare&lowbar;-Your-wellbeing-my-priority&period;png" data-id&equals;"40038" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div id&equals;"zfWrap">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine; <&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>