GB athletes teach mental health at Kent school

Paralympian and Olympians came to tell their stories of overcoming obstacles from international competition.  Finn Macdiarmid reports

Transcript

00:00It's World Mental Health Day today and a few different schools have travelled to the

00:04Stour Leisure Centre in Ashford to learn more about mental health.

00:07Mocks, exams and deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life. There's a lot

00:11of pressure on the shoulders of young people today. And not just learning a curriculum

00:15but learning key life skills like managing adversity, dealing with stress and anxiety

00:20is something these schools also want their students to learn.

00:23But the teachers aren't quite who you might expect. Former Olympic and Paralympic athletes

00:28from a variety of sports like long jump, 400 metres and fly swimming.

00:33The athletes gave talks to Year 10s, 11s and 12s from different schools around Kent on

00:38their personal journeys with four-time Olympian, gold-winning long-distance runner Mo Farah

00:44and Arsenal player Beth Mead sending in video messages.

00:47Even myself for many, many years I struggled and I had lucky enough had my family who supported

00:53me, who stood by and heard my story and by them, me talking about it with them, it gave

01:00me courage to come forward and talk about it. We all have a story. So whatever you guys

01:05do, believe in yourself, keep working hard and don't be afraid.

01:10Former Paralympian Ryan Raghu spoke on the trials he faced being an ethnic minority athlete

01:15with cerebral palsy, changing sports from running to long jump to wheelchair rugby and

01:20his own personal struggles.

01:22I think the key message or the overriding thing I'd like them to take is they can do it.

01:26If you look at the story I've told them, what I've had to overcome, I also never walk and

01:31I managed to become an international long jumper. People are going to tell them no,

01:36people are going to have expectations of them that may be lower than themselves. Don't believe

01:40that. If you want to do something, go and do it.

01:44After the presentations and a brief Q&A session, the students were taught some sitting volleyball

01:48with an emphasis on what sport and exercise can do for your mental health. I was told

01:53that the students were given workbooks and I wanted to know how those might help students

01:57with mental health awareness.

01:59People get caught up in the moment, in the hustle and bustle of life and they don't really

02:02know what they're doing and what they want to achieve. It's just that time for that reflection

02:07just to turn around and go, you know what, this is what I want to do, this is how I'm

02:11going to get there and there's five years plans in there and there's life goals in there.

02:16It's just having that little bit of reflection time.

02:19With many different techniques on how to manage your own mental health shared throughout the

02:22day, the main takeaway was to talk about things and not just bottle things up. And with all

02:27the physical activity, some hydration was needed too. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Ashford.