Prince William just said the most powerful things about mental health
And it's incredibly moving.
And it's incredibly moving.
Prince William is a keen advocate for mental health, working together with his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, and his brother, Prince Harry, to eliminate the stigma surrounding the issue.
The three of them founded Heads Together, a new campaign uniting mental health charities across the world in order to normalise the condition – selected as this year’s 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon Charity of the Year.
Taking to the stage at the Guild of Health Writers this week, Prince William spoke out about the new campaign and why mental illnesses should be treated with the same importance as physical ones.
‘Mental health was the great taboo’, Prince William announced, addressing the room. ‘If you were anxious, it’s because you were weak. If you couldn’t cope with whatever life threw at you, it’s because you were failing. Successful, strong people don’t suffer like that, do they? But of course – we all do. It’s just that few of us speak about it.’
He continued: ‘The suicide rate among young men in this country is an appalling stain on our society. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 40 in this country. Not cancer, not knife crime, not road deaths — suicide. If one of these other issues took so many young lives, there would be a national outcry. This silence is killing good people.’
Prince William then went on to talk about his wife and his brother who are heavily involved in the campaign with him.
‘For Catherine and Harry, their journeys to Heads Together were different: Harry predominately through his work with veterans, and Catherine through her work with children and young families. But their conclusions were the same — that mental health needed to be brought out of the dark and de-stigmatised.’
