An allotment was powerful medicine for Polly Baldwin after an insect bite wrecked her life

The last thing Polly Baldwin wanted to do when she could barely muster the energy to carry on and had lost all hope of ever feeling well was drag herself to her allotment. Her neighbour had given it to her just as her mystery illness started to attack but as this swiftly progressed and with no diagnosis she had hit rock bottom.

“I really don’t know what I would’ve done without the allotment. I didn’t want to let my neighbour down so I made myself go and when my anxiety and depression about being ill was at its worst it was a lifeline, as was my dog.

“It sometimes took me two hours to dig a square metre but the connection with the soil, the fresh air and seeing things grow helped me feel better,” says Polly, who is equally grateful that her plot and homegrown crops of everything from kale and artichokes to beetroot, edible flowers and honey from her bee hives are now helping her through lockdown.

Her blog, jollyallotment.co.uk and her Instagram account, @jollyallotment, chart the part played by the land near her home close to the North York Moors. They also reveal how gut health and a strong connection with food, nature and community have healed her.

A super-fit ski photographer, Polly had previously taken her good health for granted. When she wasn’t behind the camera taking pictures of professional skiers, luxury chalets and stunning views of the Alps for magazines, she thought nothing of cycling 150km a day for fun.

Vivacious and adventurous, she was 37 and high on life when venom from a spider bite provoked a rapid descent into sickness. “I was visiting my parents in Spain when I took the dog out for a walk in long grass. I knew I’d been bitten because it felt like my leg had been punctured with a red hot poker and there was a rash but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

“I went out for a few drinks and when I felt like I was dying the day after I put it down to a hangover. I had no idea it was a reaction to the bite.”

It was two years later, after a desperate search for help with devastating and unexplained health issues, that a doctor helped her retrace her steps to the moment she was bitten and it became clear that the poison had wrecked her gut.

Polly, now 43, says: “Within a year of the bite I was destroyed physically and mentally. I was in a very dark place. I had headaches, chronic fatigue, arthritic joints, sore muscles, eczema, constant pain in my ovary, brain fog, memory loss and numb limbs.

“It got to the point where I was struggling to remember my friends’ names and couldn’t even do basic maths. I began to suffer from anxiety and extreme mood swings and being self-employed I was worried about work as all I could manage was one job a week. I couldn’t see a way out and felt like a complete failure.”

Her GP told her it was “stress and depression” and offered her beta blockers and antidepressants. He also suggested steroids to combat arthritis. Polly didn’t take the drugs, fearing they would make her worse but was fortunate to find the key to recovery via a Canadian doctor who was speaking at a medical conference she was photographing.

“I heard him speak about gut health and arthritis. I had a chat with him after and he told me to trace everything back to the day I fell ill and that was it. The venom had wrecked my gut.”

Bacteria and other microbes in our guts play a vital role in digestion, immune function and mood. Too much bad bacteria and not enough good can play havoc with your health.

The best-selling book by Giulia Enders, Gut - the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ, highlights this. Polly also recommends Naomi Devlin’s The Gut Feeling: recipes to Calm Nourish and Heal and The Art of Eating Well by Jasmine and Melissa Helmsley.

She used them after a top nutritionist helped change her diet to improve her gut. A gluten intolerance and the sugar-fuelled yeast infection Candida were also revealed. “It’s about replacing processed food with eating real food that is as organic and as good for your gut as possible. It does take more time but it’s worth it,” says Polly.

“It’s amazing how powerful that change in diet has been. It has completely changed my life but if you are as bad as I was you need to find a good nutritionist who understands gut health and will do allergy tests and take stool samples to analyse.”

Along with her career as a professional photographer, she is now spreading the gospel about gut health, wellbeing and growing your own food via her blog, podcasts and social media feeds.

She is also staging Jolly Gutsy Gatherings, which take place in a rural setting, often with a campfire, and include talks by experts and advice on how gut health and a connection with nature and community can help you feel better. The next is on September 18, if social distancing allows.

“It took a year for that spider bite to wreck my health and four years to put it right. I’ve now learned to listen to my body and to thank goodness for my allotment,” says Polly. “There is so much joy and hope and promise when you grow food, even if it is just a few herbs on the windowsill.”

Visit Polly’s website www.jollyallotment.co.uk for details of the Gutsy Gatherings and for her features on anxiety, gut health recipes and growing your own veg. Subscribe to the Jolly newsletter for updates and extra advice.

You can also find daily stories and tips on Polly’s Instagram and Facebook and IGTV @jollyallotment

Polly has also launched a ‘Goodness For Wellness’ podcast featuring interviews with experts to nourish the mind, body and soul.

Polly’s Tips for keeping healthy in body, mind and spirit during lockdown:

*If you live on your own a video call with friends and family is much more beneficial than a phone call. It is important to see someone’s face.

*Learn to be kind to yourself and enjoy your own company. Try to learn something new. My friend, Jim Parkyn, a model maker for Aardman Productions, is posting community clay time videos on Instagram showing how to make models from Plasticine, which is fun.

*Fresh air is so important, even if it is just opening a window.

*Yoga has really helped me and there are lots of online classes via YouTube. I like Libby Limon and Lesley Fightmaster.

*Eat well with lots of green vegetables for your adrenal glands, plus ginger, carrot juice and apple cider vinegar.

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