Posted: Thursday 7 October 2010
World champion triple jumper Phillips Idowu is calling for Londoners to join him this Sunday (10 October) as he does his bit to help stamp out mental health stigma for World Mental Health Day and help launch Time to Get Moving week.
Hackney-born Phillips is striding out for the campaign, run by mental health charities Mind and Rethink, leading a wellbeing walk from Kentish Town tube station to Islington’s N1 Centre, location of the Time to Get Moving London flagship event. He is asking Londoners to come along and hop, step or jump the 2.5-mile route with him.
Phillips said:
I'm really looking forward to taking part in this Sunday's walk to mark World Mental Health Day. I hope that people from across London will come together to take part in the Time to Get Moving campaign, get active and help raise awareness of mental health problems.
Phillips’ walk starts at 10.30am from Kentish Town tube station with all welcome to join in on the journey to Time to Get Moving London. The flagship event, run by Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, will include a class led by belly-dancing sensation and Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Sophie Mei, while other fun-filled activities on offer include an Asian dance workshop, Tai Chi lessons and performances from the Islington Music Forum.
Around 2,000 people are expected to take part in the day’s activities, which are aimed at tackling mental health stigma and highlighting the benefits that exercise, and the social contact that it can promote, can have on mental wellbeing.
Also on World Mental Health Day, Hyde Park will be the venue for a further range of Time to Get Moving events, the highlight of which is a boxercise class led by former world champion boxer Duke McKenzie. Around 80,000 people are expected to take part in hundreds of sporting events across England throughout the week where they will not only make a stand against mental health stigma but will also reap the rewards of exercise for their mental wellbeing.
Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change said:
Mental health problems are a common part of life in the 21st century, and we all know someone who has a mental health problem, whether we realise it or not. The stigma surrounding mental illness can make it hard for people to speak out - this is one of our last great taboos.
By coming to a Time to Get Moving event you can show your support for the growing movement for change, as well as having fun, meeting people and getting active for your own mental wellbeing. Last year thousands of people took part and the events helped to get mental health out into the open and change attitudes. This year will be even bigger and better.
The Time to Change campaign is England’s most ambitious programme to end mental health discrimination and improve the nation’s mental wellbeing. The campaign is run by leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink, and backed by £16 million from the Big Lottery Fund and £4 million from Comic Relief.