Mum pays for mental health resources for young athletes

The mother of competitive swimmers has launched a nationwide mental health encouraging youth sports clubs to talk about mental health.

Backed by Olympic swimmers Ed Sinclair and Jemma Lowe, the campaign by Andrea Brown, from south Gloucestershire, includes free mental first aid courses for clubs and families.

It also includes access to a free educational documentary and ebook.

Ms Brown said she was inspired to act after her own family's experience.

The mum of two told BBC Radio Bristol she and her family had gone on their own journey with mental health and they "wanted to share it with the swimming community."

The campaign and its available resources, which are geared towards grassroots sports organisations, have been completely self-funded by Ms Brown and her family.

"This is a sport that we love and this is a way of us giving back," she added.

Ms Brown said while issues around mental health are an "epidemic" and not specific to sport, the "added pressures" of competing can make people's struggles harder.

"Whatever form those issues take and however they reveal themselves, for sure what we have is swimmers and athletes that aren't enjoying the sport as much as they should or could and aren't performing often enough to their full potential."

Forensic Psychiatrist Kike Anunobi, who supports the campaign, said: "youth athletes experience around 600 times" more things that can trigger stress, with athletes are struggling with everything from performance anxiety to vomiting before a race and striving for extreme perfectionism. 

"We spend time in the gym to make our muscles strong. The brain is a muscle too. If you don't train it to be strong it will be weak. No one becomes strong by accident," they added.

Ms Brown said: "If we help one family or give one club a new idea for something they can put in place, it's a win".

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