Jessica Clemmons announced as celebrity ambassador for Verity the Uk's leading PCOS charity

PRESS RELEASE: August 2017

Country music star Jessica Clemmons announced as celebrity ambassador for Verity the UK’s leading Polysistic Ovarian Syndrome Charity

It’s hard finding time for a serious hormone condition when you’re in the middle of building a healthy career. But it’s something one in five women have to do, including Victoria Beckham, Jools Oliver and UK-based country star Jessica Clemmons.

Polysistic Ovarian Syndrome affects 1 in 5 Women in the UK.  Country music star Jessica Clemmons who suffers from the devastating female hormone condition works alongside the UK’s leading Polysistic Ovarian Syndrome Charity Verity to raises awareness in advance of PCOS month in September.

'Verity are thrilled to have Jess on board as an ambassador for the Charity. As a charity we are run entirely by volunteers who have the condition and Jess fits perfectly with this existing structure. Her past work around body positivity and making the most of her diagnosis is the kind of positive reinforcement and motivation that we all need when dealing with a condition that is both physically and emotionally distressing. We look forward to working with her to raise awareness going forward.'    Kristine Stacke, Verity Trustee & Volunteer London Group Leader

With her career in music going from strength to strength – a sold-out tour, appearances at Isle of Wight Festival and Cornbury and a top-selling album, the news that she had PCOS – Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome – wasn’t what Jessica, a Texan but living in the UK, was hoping for. The condition can lead to weight gain, excessive body hair, acne and reproductive problems as your ovaries become prone to cysts. And many women who have it live with the symptoms for years without ever realising what’s causing them. Just like Jessica did.

For the lead singer in the band Jess and the Bandits that has become part of the up-and-coming British country scene that includes names like The Shires and Ward Thomason, on the one hand there was the music career that was garnering all the right attention including plays on Terry Wogan, five-star reviews and journalists comparing her to Shania Twain and Kelly Clarkson. On the other was an inability to shift weight despite a diet that couldn’t be bettered.

In classic Jessica style (fierce, fearless, sexy, in her own words ‘trouble’) she made the most of her inexplicable inability to lose weight by following in the legendary footsteps of Chaka Khan and Beth Ditto: she became brand ambassador for fashion label Evans, which specialises in clothes for all sizes, fronting their ‘I Am Me’ campaign, which focussed on body acceptance and appeared all over UK TV to talk about body positivity. But she still needed to get to the bottom of what was going on with her own body.

‘I’d spent countless nights weeping in my bedroom wondering what was wrong with me because on paper I should have been thin – I was eating well and exercising a lot,’ she says. And like many women who don’t seem to lose the weight despite their healthy lifestyles, she says, ‘I was doing everything I could but nothing was working.

‘After seeing several doctors, I finally discovered that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and my weight problems are linked to the hormone imbalances, thyroid problems and insulin resistance that come with the territory,’ says Jessica, who, despite the shock, was pleased to finally identify the root cause of the symptoms she’d been struggling to live with.

‘My doctor thinks I’ve had it since I was a teenager,’ she goes on. ‘I cried in her office when she told me – it was such a relief finally to know what was contributing to my weight problems. Now I’m on medication to keep my hormones in balance, which makes losing weight a bit easier.’

So, with her health issues in hand, it’s full steam ahead for Jess and the Bandits, with a barnstorming new single, ‘I’m Not Going Home’, showcasing the classic Jessica inability to give in to adversity (‘Even though the ground is shaking/even though my heart is breaking/I’m not going home’). As she says in the song, she’s shaken off the dust and is back in the saddle with a bunch of festival appearances and a new album, Smoke & Mirrors currently being teased.

Because if there’s one woman you can’t keep down, it’s Jessica.

The album Smoke & Mirrors is out on 15 September 2017.

For more information visit www.jessandthebandits.com
For more information on Verity visit www.verity-pcos.org.uk

For more information, images or to request an interview contact Cat at Fifth Element PR on Tel: 0207 722 0000 or email: cat@fifthelement.biz

September 1, 2017 5:00am ET by Fifth Element PR  

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