Stopping bullying, making new friends, and getting more involved with LHM.

Ben Hall has been a member of LHM's Youth Council since it began, and works hard to raise awareness about congenital heart disease and the difficulties that might arise from it. He supports younger children and uses his experience to help with projects to create information tools. Here he gives some tips about bullying.

Over the years I have been to lots of Little Hearts Matter events: award ceremonies, youth council meetings, open days, DVD filming workshops, and much more.

Ben chats to Baroness Howarth, Patron of LHM.
As you start to do more, you get to know more of the older members and staff who are all really friendly. You even meet the people in charge of the charity, like the trustees and the chairperson. It's really easy to get more involved as well, for example you can join the Youth Council and Facebook group, which is so much easier than writing or waiting till the next Open Day comes around.

You could also text people, for example I text Evie, another LHM young member and youth councillor, after we met at an LHM event. Because she lives in Cornwall and I live up north in Chester, texting is so much easier than getting the train or writing, mainly because it’s cheaper.

As the years have gone by, LHM have started to concentrate more on dealing with bullying, which is good because it helps me and everyone in secondary school come over the fear of being bullied, and it helps them to deal with bullying. In my own experience I have never been bullied. Yes, I have been called names but I just turn around and say, ‘Yeah, so!?’, that way they have no idea how to respond and the “bully” just walks away. If bullying becomes a real problem, it's best to talk to a teacher or your parents. You might think that you are being a grass, but if someone is a bully then they don't deserve to be protected.

At the last LHM Open Day we learnt that all schools have to have an anti-bullying policy, it's the law. If you don't want to talk to your teacher or your parents you can email jon@lhm.org.uk or you can call Childline on 0800 1111. Jon has lots of experience talking to children with heart conditions and young people that are being bullied, and Childline is completely confidential and available 24/7.

Childline offers a confidential, non-judgemental service. The number is free and won't appear on your bill.
Making new friends is always hard, and I can understand how hard it is to get to know new people when you’re young, however its really easy in LHM because you have something to relate to with all of the other kids. So if you don’t know how to introduce yourself just go up to someone who you don’t know and say ‘I have hypoplastic left heart syndrome and a pace maker, what heart condition do you have?’ it works every time (of course if HLHS isn’t your heart condition then just say yours instead!) You can’t really try that at school as you may get a few weird looks, but in LHM everyone has a heart condition or knows people with heart conditions so it’s completely normal.

Hope to see you at the Open Day on March 2nd!

Editor's note: Nobody should have to go through bullying, everyone has the right to be happy and safe at school. Bullies pick on any little thing that makes someone different to other people, and that means that sometimes bullies pick on people's heart condition. We know that lots of young people can feel really negative about their heart condition because of this, but it's important to remember that if it wasn't your heart condition, bullies would pick on something different. Everyone's different, there's no such thing as normal, and your heart condition is just a part of who you are.

It also shows that you're incredibly brave and strong, you've come through multiple open heart surgeries! If you find that you're feeling down on yourself or sad about your heart condition, then please get in touch by emailing jon@lhm.org.uk or calling childline. You can also speak to a childline counsellor online through their chat service. You don't have to go through it alone. Click here for the childline website, where there is lots of information on bullying, including how you can get it stopped.