This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and as part of a new campaign by High Street retailer Blacks Outdoors, the team sat down with former Channel 4’s ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ stars Esmee Gummer (from Essex) and Mark Peart to help get people talking about their experiences, and to raise awareness for those struggling with mental health problems.
The aim of the campaign is to prompt people to openly discuss issues they are facing in their own lives and help people benefit from the stories of others by asking outdoor experts just what ‘wellness’ means to them.
Both ambassadors for living life in the great outdoors, Esmee and Mark opened up about some of their struggles and overcoming challenges they faced both on the TV show as well as in their personal lives.
Mark was one of three who made it through the tough selection processes which aired earlier this year. During his time on the show, he spoke of losing his wife Chelsey to suicide six months prior to when filming started. Speaking to Blacks, he used his experiences to answer what wellness means to him.
London local Esmee was one of the top performing females on the programme and this was the first time in the show’s history that women were able to take part. Esmee opened up with viewers about how she was left paralysed by ‘simple’ surgery at the age of just eighteen, and how she was told she would never walk again. She shares with Blacks how this impacted her mental wellbeing and how she was able to overcome obstacles in her inspiring road to recovery.
Blacks echoes the messages put forward by Esmee and Mark and is determined to help people get outside to enjoy an adventure into the great unknown, with a dedicated campaign to ‘Outdoors, In Mind’.
A spokesperson for Blacks commented:
“Millions upon millions of people suffer from mental health problems across the globe. As practised by SAS stars Esmee and Mark, our hope is simply to encourage people to reach for the outdoors as a way of trying to clear their mind and focus on improving their mental and physical health.”
“The Outdoors, In Mind campaign will feature advice and ideas that aim to encourage people to clear their minds and spend as much of their day as possible outside. From walking the dog in the morning whilst listening to your favourite podcast, to spending your lunch break sat on a bench in the car park, the simplest change to your routine can make a massive difference.”
Over the coming weeks and months Blacks will be continuing to post ideas and advice about how making small simple changes to your routine can promote a better mental health in the long run.
