Mind and Loose Women’s Lighten The Load Hero Award
Mind and ITV’s Loose Women are coming together to launch a special new award which will recognise the everyday heroes who support those of us living with mental health problems.
The Loose Women Lighten the Load Hero award will honour someone who has gone to extraordinary lengths to be there for someone living a with a mental health problem. It might be in recognition of a moment of inspirational kindness, starting the conversation which motivated you to seek professional help or it could reward all the small things that they do to support you.
Your Lighten The Load Hero might be your mum, best friend, partner or work colleague. It should be someone who has truly made a difference to your life during a difficult time.
Loose Women’s Lighten The Load campaign is all about talking and listening. Talking if you’ve been affected, or being there to listen to someone who is going through a period of stress. The campaign was launched in 2016 and has had a phenomenal response from viewers. We now want to put a spotlight on the people who are putting the principles of the Lighten the Load campaign into action every day.
The Lighten The Load hero prize will be presented at this year’s Mind Media Awards at the ODEON Leicester Square in London on Monday 13 November. The awards celebrate the best reporting and portrayals of mental health in print, broadcast, film and digital media as well as honouring people that are making a difference by speaking out about their mental health experiences.
Loose Women editor Sally Shelford says: "We’re thrilled to have been asked by Mind to create a very special award at this year’s Mind Media Awards.
One in four of us will experience some form of mental health issue in any given year. When we launched our Lighten The Load campaign in 2016, Andrea McLean talked about her experience of post-natal depression while Nadia Sawalha has opened up about attending Overeaters Anonymous and supporting her husband Mark who experiences depression.
"Our Lighten The Load campaign is all about talking and listening and we were honoured to win a Mind Award in 2016 for our campaign. We have been overwhelmed with Loose Women viewers sharing their experiences since panellists and guests have talked openly about their personal stories of mental health issues.
"The Loose Women Lighten The Load Hero Award is the perfect opportunity to say thank you to the person who went out of their way to listen and support a viewer experiencing a mental health issue."
We look forward to reading your incredible stories!
How to enter:
You can find details of how to enter at the ITV Loose Women website.
You must detail in up to 300 words who you are nominating, how they helped you and why you think they deserve to be recognised as our Lighten the Load Hero.
Please submit your entry by 10.30am on Wednesday 16 August 2017.
You and your nominee must be 18 or over. For T&Cs and details on how to apply visit itv.com/loosewomen.
Winners will be chosen by a judging panel made up of representatives from Loose Women, Mind and an independent judge.
The Loose Women Lighten the Load Hero award will be presented at this year’s Mind Media Awards at the ODEON Leicester Square on Monday 13 November.
