Michel, 65, and Suzy, 49, both have bipolar disorder. They met at a conference on the subject in 2005; a year later, on their first date, they got engaged
After he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1997, Michel didn’t think it was possible to find lasting love. Throughout his 20s he had been the main carer for his father, who also had bipolar, and seen the challenges first-hand. “The treatment at the time was primitive and his illness destroyed my parents’ marriage. I grew up with the idea that people with bipolar couldn’t live with anyone else,” he says. So he channelled his energy into work, becoming a freelance writer and a founding trustee of the charity Bipolar UK.
In October 2005, he was helping out at one of its conferences when he spotted Suzy, a speaker he had invited. “I’d been diagnosed with bipolar when I was 20 and spent a decade in and out of psychiatric hospitals,” she says. “Unlike many other people I knew, I’d received very good care, so I’d decided to write a book about my experiences to show how much the care and kindness from nurses had helped me.”
