Mind Media Awards Judges 2017

Rosey Adams

Rosey is a mum of three, who lives in Perthshire. She is the founder of PND and Me, an online peer support network for those affected by perinatal mental illness. She was the 2016 winner in the Blogger category of the Mind Awards. She works alongside many charities such as the NCT and Maternal Mental Health Scotland Change Agents to help take on the stigma and challenges faced by mothers in the UK living with mental health problems. She is currently studying for a Counselling Diploma and hopes to set up PND and Me as a charity in the near future.

Nihal Arthanayake

Nihal is the host of BBC Radio 5 Live's Afternoon Edition and Friday mornings can be heard on the BBC Asian Network. He has recently hosted Hip Hop and Me for Sky Arts, Film 2017 on BBC One and in 2016 broadcast from Rio for the Olympic Games. He has also fronted the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show and Sunday Politics London for BBC. Nihal sits on the board of London's Southbank Centre.

Denise O'Donoghue

Denise O'Donoghue OBE, FRTS, is the Executive Director of ITV Studios, the largest production company in the UK, making 3,500 hours of television a year, across drama, entertainment, factual and daytime programming. Denise is also a board member of Big Talk Productions and special adviser to 12 Yard Productions. Denise was the cofounder and MD of Hat Trick Productions, a pioneer of independent production in the UK, both creatively and commercially. Denise is the recipient of many awards including a personal BAFTA for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television and is a founding Trustee of Creative Access.

Tom Bidwell

Tom is from Leyland in Lancashire and studied English Literature with Drama at the University of East Anglia. He is a graduate of the BBC Writers' Academy and has written for shows such as EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City. In 2011, his short film Wish 143n was nominated for an Academy Award. He is the creator of the BAFTA- and International Emmy nominated My Mad Fat Diary which won a Mind Media Award for best drama series in 2014. He is currently working on a new animated retelling of Watership Down for Netflix/BBC One and an adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's Katy for CBBC.

Dr Max Pemberton

Max is a doctor, journalist and writer. He works full time in the NHS in mental health. He is a columnist for the Daily Mail and Reader's Digest. He is also on the editorial board of The Spectator magazine and editor of the quarterly supplement, Spectator Health. He has won several awards for his writing, including the Mind Journalist of the Year and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Public Educator of the Year awards. He has also written four books, including Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor, which was serialised on Radio 4 Book of the Week. His latest is a self-help book about using CBT to stop smoking.

Matt Wilkinson

Matt is a radio presenter and hosts the most-listened to show on commercial radio in the UK, Afternoons, on Heart Radio. Matt is the creator and presenter of Mindcast – a series of podcasts for Mind exploring different mental health conditions. Mindcast: Bipolar was previously nominated for a prestigious Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Internet Programme. Matt has a degree in Psychology.

Eleanor Morgan

Eleanor is a journalist and author. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, The Independent, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, GQ, i-D, VICE, The Gentlewoman, The Believer and more. She has a weekly mental wellbeing advice column in Grazia called 'School of Thought'. Her first book, Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation, was published by Bluebird at Pan Macmillan (UK and Commonwealth) and Harper Collins (Canada).

Eleanor recently completed an MSc in psychology and, alongside her writing, is retraining as a psychologist with a research interest in women's health. She lives in London with her staffie, Peg.

Bryony Gordon

Bryony is one of The Telegraph's best-loved journalists, columnist and features writer. She has been writing for The Telegraph for a number of years and also freelances for various other publications including Grazia Magazine. Bryony's first book The Wrong Knickers was published by Headline in 2014 and became a Sunday Times bestseller staying in the chart for six weeks in 2015. Her next book, Mad Girl, was published by Headline to critical acclaim and intense media coverage in June 2016. It was selected for the Richard and Judy Spring Book Club 2017, and became a Sunday Times Bestseller. Mad Girl depicts what it is like living with OCD, bulimia and depression with trademark humour, warmth and eye-watering honesty.

As well as setting up mental health walking groups, Bryony ran the marathon for the Heads Together campaign in April and interviewed His Royal Highness Prince Harry on her podcast 'Bryony Gordon's Mad World'.

Toby Castle

Toby is Deputy News Editor at the BBC and former Head of Home News at ITV News. has worked in network news since 1999 producing home and foreign stories. Most recently he's been responsible for managing coverage across BBC News. Under his leadership ITV News won a BAFTA in 2011 for its coverage of the Cumbria shootings and won the RTS News Coverage Home Award for coverage of the Jimmy Savile story.

Victoria Macdonald

Victoria is Health and Social Care Correspondent at Channel 4 News. Originally from New Zealand, she worked for The Sunday Telegraph before joining Channel 4. Victoria is an award-winning journalist, who has been covering health and social care issues for Channel 4 News since 1999. She closely follows the changes and developments in the NHS and the care system from the scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust to the wholesale reforms of the health service. Victoria also reports on medical developments, mental health issues, covers stories on how welfare reforms are affecting those with physical disabilities and closely watches developments in HIV and AIDS and TB.

Nicholas Pinnock

Nicholas Pinnock is best known for his role as Jason Backland in crime drama Marcella and as Leon in Top Boy, which was nominated for a Mind Media Award in 2012. Nicholas was last seen in TV mini-series Guerilla, also starring Idris Elba and will be seen next in the sci-fi thriller, Counterpart, alongside J. K. Simmons. In 2018 he will star in V.S. and the short film Candice. His theatre credits include As You like It and Born Bad, and he was most recently seen on stage in The Royale at the Bush Theatre for which he received rave reviews.

Nicholas is a proud Mind ambassador and has supported the charity through various fundraising and awareness campaigns over the last five years.

Claudia Hammond

Claudia is an award-winning broadcaster, writer and psychology lecturer. She is the presenter of Britain's longest-running mental health programme, All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4 (which has twice won Mind Media Awards in recent years), and presents Health Check on BBC World Service Radio. Claudia is also on the part-time faculty at Boston University's London base where she lectures in health and social psychology. She is the author of three psychology books: Emotional Rollercoaster, Time Warped and her most recent, Mind over Money: the psychology of money and how to use it better.

Juno Dawson

Juno is the multi award-winning author of dark teen thrillers. Her first nonfiction book, Being a Boy, tackled puberty, sex and relationships in a frank and funny fashion, and a follow-up for young LGBT people, This Book is Gay, came out in 2014. Her first non-fiction book for adults, The Gender Games, was published earlier this year. Juno is a regular contributor to Attitude Magazine, GT and The Guardian and has contributed to news items about sexuality, identity, literature and education on BBC Woman's Hour, Front Row, This Morning and Newsnight. She writes full time and lives in Brighton. (photo: Sophia Spring)

Jane Merkin

Jane has been a series and executive producer for almost 20 years, working on a range of documentary and current affairs programmes for British television which have won awards including BAFTAs, RTS, Broadcast and Prix Italia. Subjects have included homelessness (On The Streets, BBC4 2010), migration and refugees (Panorama Special: Breaking Into Britain, BBC1 2010 and Exodus: Our Journey To Europe 2016) and mental health (Don't Call Me Crazy, BBC3 2013 and My Baby, Psychosis and Me, BBC1 2016, which won the 2017 Mind Media Award for Documentary). She currently works at October Films and has most recently been executive producer on Dangerous Borders: a Journey Across India and Pakistan as part of the BBC season on Partition.

Sean Fletcher

Sean Fletcher is well known for his role as a broadcaster on BBC One's Countryfile, as a presenter on ITV's Good Morning Britain, as host of popular quiz Rebound and for his writing for Huffington Post. Sean has also appeared on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, as well as fronting a variety of factual programmes and documentaries like BBC Two's Food Detectives, and Wales and the Slave Trade. Sean also unearthed and retold a story of an ordinary couple who ended the 1960 racist marriage law in the USA, in a BBC programme called Loving vs Virginia, shortlisted for BBC World Best Documentary of the Year award.

Sean is regularly involved in reporting sporting events such as the London Olympics, the 2010 and 2014 Football World Cups and Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He's also been known to get involved himself – he's run the London Marathon three times, including for Heads Together in 2017, and played for the Rest of the World in ITV's SoccerAid.

James Ingham

James is the Showbiz Editor on the Daily Star Sunday newspaper. The respected journalist has spoken openly and honestly about his own struggles with mental health issues which lead to a suicide attempt when he was 20. James has since tried to highlight the mental health issues faced by the LGBT community. He is a charity trustee and spokesperson for RUComingOut.com and a School Role Model for Stonewall. James is also the founder of Jog On To Cancer and has raised over £250,000 for various charities. Describing himself as a 'pretend poet', James has recently tried to spread a message of hope by writing poetry. (photo: Pndphotography)

Mandy Stevens

Mandy has had 30 years of experience working in Mental Health services, with 15 years as a registered nurse and latterly 15 years as a leader and director of nursing in the NHS In October 2016 Mandy experienced severe depression and was admitted to an NHS acute ward for three months. Drawing on her clinical experience and knowledge of recovery, Mandy battled compelling thoughts of ending her own life. On her recovery journey she then developed acute anxiety and describes herself as "being a prisoner at home, unable to do almost anything" due to the high levels of anxiety.

Now fully recovered, Mandy talks and writes about her experience of mental health in order to increase awareness about mental health problems and recovery, to reduce stigma around mental illness and as part of suicide-prevention campaigns.

Matt Johnson

Matt has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, film and TV including Johnny Depp, Ray Winston and Simon Cowell while presenting for VUE Cinemas. He regularly presents on ITV Daytime for Good Morning Britain and This Morning and has hosted Saturday nights for The National Lottery on BBC1 and Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk. Other credits include the newspaper reviews for Sky, The Great British Bake-Off Twitter takeover, Five's daily entertainment news show OK!TV and S4C's successful language series Hwb and Cariad@iaith-love4language. He has co-hosted the Annual British Academy Cymru Awards and The Pride of Bucks Awards among others.

Matt has also taken part in the Virgin Money London Marathon, as well as spearheading a Mind mountain trek challenge to raise funds for the charity, for which he is an active and passionate ambassador.

Louise Chunn

Louise is the founder of find-a-therapist platform welldoing.org, which she launched in 2014. It is linked to from NHS Choices and was listed among the top therapy blogs in the UK and US this year. Louise is a former prize-winning magazine editor, most recently of Psychologies. As well as helping people find the right therapists for their own issues, she has created a website with a huge amount of well written and trustworthy information for anyone interested in mental health and wellbeing.

Shortlisting and judging process

As the Awards have grown over the last 24 years so has the number of entries. This year we received hundreds of submissions across all categories. The 2017 Awards recognise programmes, publications, blogs and films that have been broadcast or published in the UK or have been available online between 18 June 2016 and 17 June 2017.

Once we close for entries in July, our volunteer shortlisters read, watch and listen to all the material submitted. Our shortlisters comprise a mix of Mind members, campaigners, media volunteers and media professionals, most of whom have their own direct experience of mental health problems. The shortlisters meet in September to debate and decide upon the nominees. Once the shortlist for each category has been agreed, the material is passed on to the Mind Media Awards judges. Our independent judges are media experts who have produced work about mental health or are previous Mind Media Awards winners. They each tackle three or four categories and importantly don't judge any categories where they may have a personal interest in the outcome. Over very lively discussions they choose an outright winner in each field.