Harry, Meghan, William and Kate have launched a 24/7 mental health text line

The royals are joining forces

Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined forces to launch a mental health text line, Shout, which aims to support those in crisis.

The free anonymous text service allows those in distress to talk to trained volunteers 24/7 and the initiative has been backed by the royals with a £3 million grant from their Royal Foundation.

Prince William told those at the launch event: 'With the biggest investment by the Royal Foundation to date we are today able to formally launch Shout – a new UK-wide service that connects vulnerable people in a state of crisis to trained volunteers who are there to help.

'The service is free to use, anonymous, and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

'The conversations are run by volunteers who have completed 25 hours of online training, and are monitored by an exceptional clinical team. Over the course of the last year 1,000 volunteers have signed up, and 60,000 conversations have taken place.

'That is 60,000 moments when people who were feeling scared, frightened and alone were able to use their phone to connect with someone who could support them.'

It has been modelled on the US-based Crisis Text Line, and will connect individuals with trained volunteers whenever they need support.

The Duchess of Cambridge added: 'For the last few years, I’ve been focusing much of my work on the importance of prevention in the earliest years of life to help avoid problems in later life.

'But, sadly, for so many, they have already reached a crisis situation. This is why Shout is so important. It is able to offer support when it is crucially needed, and the opportunity to turn lives around.'

To use the service text ‘shout’ to 85258.