Clare Kelly is thoughtful and self-assured. Her life has changed drastically since she first attended the Women's Health Initiative community house five years ago. She had just returned after 22 years in England. "I was 14 1/2 stone; I wouldn't get out of bed some days. It was convenient that the bus took the children to school, as I had no call to get out of bed. All that has changed."
Jacinta, one of the initiative's staff, befriended Clare, and slowly she started to change her life.
"Ten years ago I would never have looked in the mirror. It would have been, 'ah, you'll do,' and I'd walk on. Today, I would not say I love myself, but I've got used to myself.
"I've got strength from here, from the WHI. When people say you are doing well, that's a step up the ladder for me from being down, really down. I was depressed because I couldn't change my life at home.
"I was in a rut, no one would call in and I was feeling sorry for myself. But no one is going to call in; you have to go out to get people to notice you. "It is like the way that, 40 years ago, there was no transport here and you couldn't get out.
"Now we are taking a lot of information into the community so people don't have to go out of the area."
Four years and a lot of support later, Kelly is a qualified beautician and is sharing her skills with other women who have come to the initiative. Kelly hopes her 16-year-old daughter will have a different life from hers. "I can see how my mother went on. She never got out and seemed to resent the home life. She was there all the time.
"I don't want my daughter to say: 'I hate this.' If she has all the information she needs, feels good about herself and is positive ... I want her to get out and meet as many people as she can."