'I quit my job over anxiety - now life's a bed of roses'

An office manager who quit her job six months ago over health anxiety says she has never felt better since pivoting to become a florist - with business blooming so much she is about to open her own shop.

Natalie Dyson, from Blackpool, has struggled with health anxiety since she got pregnant five years ago.

"It was the happiest I had been but all of a sudden it was this reality it could be taken away any minute," she said, adding if she had any aches or pain she would search online and feared the "worst case scenario".

Dyson, who shares her experiences and how she manages her health anxiety on TikTok with nearly 50,000 followers, said she was "so excited" to be opening her own business.

Health anxiety is when you spend so much time worrying you're ill, or going to get ill, that it starts to take over your life and is related to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to the NHS.

The 37-year-old said her first symptom was getting a pain in her breast when she was pregnant with her middle child.

"Straight away I was searching online until it was worst case scenario and breast cancer and health anxiety was born," she said.

Dyson said triggers included hearing ambulances, seeing posters about cancer in the doctors' surgery and having a shower.

She said showering could give her "such bad anxiety" in case she felt a lump.

She thought the anxiety would disappear once she had given birth to her son, but it did not.

In October, she decided to leave her job as a dental practice office manager as it had become "too stressful" working on her own in an office with health anxiety alongside work pressures.

She had worked there 15 years but needed a change and wanted to try floristry although she had no background in it.

She called it Clarity Florist "because it has given me peace of mind and saved me being busy all the time".

The business quickly took off and before long flowers "had taken over my kitchen" so she set her heart on opening her own shop.

She said she was in a "much better place" and loved being her own boss.

Despite a setback when she said the premises was broken into on 25 March and everything from her tools to her paint and paintbrushes were stolen, she is determined to carry on.

"It was devastating," she said. "I'd saved up for months to buy the stuff."

However, she said the response from the community had been "amazing" with some people donating tools to replace the ones taken.

"It shows good people outweighs the bad."

She is aiming to hold well-being workshops in small numbers, such as make your own hat boxes, once she is settled in at her shop on Waterloo Road.

Dyson said she hoped the sessions could help others who have health anxiety.

"I couldn't find any support when I got health anxiety that is why I started my TikTok account to raise awareness of it," she said.

"I felt like I was losing my mind.

"I had no one to talk to about it but then I got so many messages from people saying my account made them feel less alone," she added.

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