Thomas Dunning

Growing up Thomas had a brilliant childhood at home; but throughout his school life and his childhood saw him bullied and assaulted on a daily basis; His brothers would come to his rescue and always look after him until one of his brothers died of cancer in 2009.

Not wanting to let out my emotions, I bottled everything up as deemed the social norm of “Masculinity”. Five years passed, I gained a degree in mechanical engineering and met my partner. This is when I enters into a world of emotional mental trauma – battling with psychotic episodes experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations;I denied any possibility of being mentally unwell causing great strain on his relationship and leading to the ultimatum of loosing my partner.

After opening up to my friends; they turned on me in a savage attack of cyber bullying leading up to being in Accident and emergency twice in one night, both after trying to take his life.

I was introduced to a group of sufferers with the same diagnosis (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Borderline personality disorder and Severe Anxiety disorder) and this give me a thirst for life. I went through several bouts of therapy and loosing 8 stone in the process; I had turned my life around. I continue to do this through sharing my various stories of mental crisis and how physical exercise changed him for the better. breaking down the walls of mental health stigma; and that anyone can identify if they too need help. Its also to motivate those suffering to know there is a safe way out and how physical exercise can benefit mental health issues.

My greatest achievement to date is doing a TED talk on my mental health story and i dedicate most of my spare time trying to spread mental health awareness to break the walls of Stigma.

If there is 1 in 4 people suffering with a mental health problem, There is always three others who can help save a life.