Before joining the weird and wonderful world of WoW, I once
worked as a door-to-door Charity Fundraiser for the Samaritans, yes I was one
of those annoying people with the florescent green anoraks and a clip board
rapping at your door asking you in a very rehearsed pitch to hand over your
bank details during the England match of the Euro Finals…cringe, cringe,
cringe. I remember thinking this would be a lot easier if I was on the
Macmillan team, the idea that your monthly direct debit of £8.50 would be used
to fund a nurse to support a cancer patient through chemo as opposed to being
put towards a new phone line for people to rant about their problems seemed all
the more convincing. Sadly, this reaction was confirmed across the look of many
people on the opposite side of the door’s faces. But really, what is the difference
between the prior and the latter? The money received for both charities would
be used to support those suffering from an illness which a) affects everyone
and b) is responsible for a large number of deaths worldwide. Everyone knows
someone affected by Cancer and everyone knows someone affected by mental
illness.
I feel that a creative writing competition focused on mental
health and what it means to the individual is a perfect place to start when beginning
to try and tackle the stigma around mental illness. Creativity has always been
so intricately entwined with mental health, before we even knew what ‘mental
health’ was, when all we could explain was the ‘heart ache and [a] thousand
natural shocks.’ (William Shakespeare, Hamlet) From Shakespeare to J.D Salinger, the pain and suffering of the human
mind has been well documented through the writing and the expression of the
author, before we were able to rely on science for some understanding. It’s
therapeutic to write and it’s therapeutic to read, especially when what we are
reading mirrors our own pain and suffering.
Organising Mental
Health and Me has certainly proven that while people may not always find
the words or the strength to speak openly about mental distress, there is
definitely some comfort felt in writing about it. The number of entries we
received for the competition definitely exceeded our expectations with a steady
number of entries per category. The entries covered such a wide scope of issues
surrounding mental health including writing on personal experiences with
depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, OCD as well as some personal
accounts of what it is like to work as a carer. Some entries even focused on
what happiness meant to them which was lovely to read as sometimes, while it
may seem obvious, people often overlook that happiness is a major part of
mental health. I was also quite surprised, although I shouldn't be, that our
entries were quite evenly spread across the age groups which again reinforces
the truth that mental health affects everyone. I also have to say that I was
absolutely delighted by the cover and artwork created for the book by our
designer, Rosa Murdoch. I believe that the artwork for the competition was
pivotal in helping us to break the stigma surrounding mental health. So often,
charities depict their literature and design for mental health in such a
clinical way which would make anyone run a mile, but I believe our chosen
design is very inclusive, kitsch and reflects the creativity linked with mental
health.
It has to be said that one of the most exciting parts of
organising this competition was being granted the opportunity to meet the
fabulous Ruby Wax who so kindly agreed to meet with us and let us film her
announcing the overall winner of the competition who turned out to be the
lovely, Gemma Rogers. It was fortunate that Ruby was in Liverpool in September
as part of a UK Tour of her show, Sane
New World which is based on her book around mindfulness which she wrote
after her study at Oxford University where she gained her Masters in
Mindfulness-based Cognitive therapy. Following Ruby’s accidental ‘outing’ of
her depression, she has since become known as the poster-girl for mental
illness. While at first, Ruby claimed she was mortified that her secret had
been revealed in the least subtle way, (her face was blown up on a poster throughout
every tube station in London with the words ‘THIS WOMAN HAS A MENTAL ILLNESS’
attached), Ruby now owns it and works hard as an activist in tackling the
stigma surrounding mental health. Myself and Madeline as well as Sarah and
Claire from the Mental Health Consortium, were very excited and humbled to meet
her at The Playhouse before her show, she was very down to earth, gracious
and happy to help us and accommodate us with what we asked her to do. We would
like to thank her for helping us to raise the profile of this competition and I
would also have to say that I definitely recommend her book, Sane New World, having read it after I
developed a slight obsession with her after meeting her – and also because I
found out she co-wrote Absolutely
Fabulous. (Amazing!)
On World Mental Health Day, 10th October 2014, we
held our celebration event for Mental
Health and Me where we announced the winners and runners up for each
category and invited the overall winner of each category on stage to read from
their work. Each winner and runner up received a free copy of Mental Health and Me book and the
overall winner, Gemma Rogers who wrote ‘Letters to Myself’ in the Letters
category won a special trophy and a £100 book voucher from News From Nowhere.
The celebration was a fantastic event with a brilliant turnout.
Councillor Alan
Dean who attended the event hit the nail on the head when he said:
‘It was a real privilege for all of us, [Councillors]
Wendy, Claire & Tim, to be there and to share in what was an uplifting and
emotional event. And the same applies to the book that was on sale that night.
Again, very moving, emotional and uplifting.’
Looking back at the event, one month after its passing, it
is clear how much of a wonderful, positive impact Mental Health and Me has created and it’s great to have a legacy
following the competition. One week after the celebration event, we received an
email from Liverpool Echo’s Tom Belger, who asked could he write a feature on
Gemma Rogers and her experience in coping with and overcoming self-harm which
can be read here. In a kind of dominoes effect, we then received a call from a lady who told us
she had read about the article in the Liverpool Echo and was wondering how she
could purchase a copy of the Mental Health and Me book as her daughter was
suffering from a similar experience and she felt that her daughter would be
able to relate to Gemma’s story, especially as she was around the same age. The
lady pointed out how beneficial it was to have a book like this made as she was
unable to find anything similar which her daughter may relate to. We believe
this point was reiterated by the fact that for the first time, we completely
sold out of 100 books on the first night of sale during the Mental Health and Me celebration event.
As well as this, we have also been approached by other charities and
organisations who are interested in a partnership to create a similar
competition with their cause having seen the very positive effect it has had.
On behalf of everyone at Writing on the Wall, we are
delighted that we have helped people to break their silence, share their story
and change their life, even if it’s only slightly and we will continue to push
forward and create more publications like Mental
Health and Me.
Chanel Scott-Jeffers
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