A TRAINEE teacher is planning to visit schools and colleges in the district to share his story about his struggles with mental health.

Tom Boldy suffered from depression and anxiety throughout his teens, and is hoping to visit schools to speak to pupils about the importance of talking about mental health.

The 22-year-old said he did not receive support for mental health during his teenage years and was scared of telling anyone about his problems. He hoped opening up about his experiences to young people would encourage more who may be struggling to seek help.

Tom was inspired to speak out about his problems after sharing his story in a video on social media, which quickly went viral.

He said: “My depression spiralled out of control when I was at school.

“It felt like I was the only one feeling like that so found it hard to speak to people.

“That’s why I speak now about the importance of mental health and I am passionate about spreading my story to get people talking about it.

“My problems started when I was in year six when my parents split up. The feeling of having my dad there as a role model to then not having him there at all was hard to deal with, but because I’m a lad you think you shouldn’t talk about your feelings.

“I’d never heard of mental health before I just felt alone. My thoughts were getting worse and darker and I tried to take my own life.

“Then Gary Speed died. I’m a big football fan, and people started talking about mental health. A lot of footballers spoke about it and it hit home to me and made me feel like I wasn’t the only one.

“I realised it was an illness, not just something happening to me, so I spoke to my mum but couldn’t find the courage to tell her so got my friend to ring the doctor pretending I had a cold.

“I sat with my GP and it took me five minutes to actually say it, but once I did it felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

“Her support was fantastic.”

Tom was put forward for cognitive behavioural therapy, which he said “pretty much saved my life”.

“It changed the way I approached things and gave me a new mindset,” he said.