How Shane Filan Helped Me.

On March 29th I was sitting in my bedroom getting ready to head to Glasgow. The nerves had kicked in and I was hoping that it would all calm down as I didn't want my big night ruined.  I kept my focus on the main goal and that was to see my idol in concert.


Back in 2014 I was due to go see him but this was before my diagnosis and I ended up lying in bed too unwell to go.  I was devastated but I made a promise to myself that it would only be the next Shane concert that could make me determined to really beat my anxiety, that would have me facing a massive crown, one that I wouldn't want to leave.

As me and James set off, I felt the old tingles of excitement that I always got when going to a concert and I must admit it was nice to feel that again.  Before long we had arrived at the Clyde Auditorium and the nerves returned but I was determined to have a good night.  We met up with some of my friends and we headed to the hall.

Joe Miles came on and I found myself starting to relax a little and was really enjoying his music. Soon came the 30 minute interval and that is when my anxiety thought about playing up but I kept my main goal in my head and I was not letting it beat me. I couldn't run home now.

The lights went down and the intro to Everything To Me started.  This was it, the moment I had been working towards.  Not only was I beating my anxiety once and for all, I was seeing Shane live.  It felt amazing.  Singing songs from both his solo albums and some Westlife tracks I had such an incredible night, singing, dancing an most importantly having fun.

Uptown girl is always a hit with the crowd but this time there was a twist.  Shane had asked the fans to send in pictures via twitter using the hashtag #RightHere followed with the city, so for me it was #RightHereGlasgow.  I never imagined my picture would appear on the screen as he was singing one of my favourite songs but.....

I made it to the big screen and yes I did let out a scream followed by "oooooo it's meeeee"It was all rather amusing.  

All too quickly it was the last couple of songs and Shane and his band came out in kilts. Let's just say the crowd went mad.  The opening bars to my all time favourite song "About You" started and by this point I wasn't caring that I couldn't sing I just belted it out.

The most emotional part of the show was when he was singing "Right Here" I was in tears, the words in the song just hit me every time I hear it and hearing it live I was left in tears. Not in a bad way but that was when I realised that I had finally conquered anxiety.

The final words of this post are for Shane.  Thank you so much, you won't know how much you have helped me conquer something that had control of me for so long. I am forever grateful to you. I know I am not the only one out there with anxiety who came along to see you so on behalf of us all thank you for everything.  See you on your next tour xx