00:00Hi, I'm Lara. I'm project lead for the Baton of Hope for Portsmouth.
00:03We've just brought it in by a motorbike convoy from Basingstoke.
00:07Our baton bearers were carrying it in a sidecar.
00:10So, yeah, I mean, the journey was incredible.
00:14It was incredibly emotional.
00:15So I was driving, so I had the baton bearers nipping in and out of my car.
00:23Yeah, first time it's been to Portsmouth and extremely proud of bringing it into Portsmouth.
00:27Hello, I'm Daniel O'Brien and I'm the managing director at Citrus.
00:32Mental health in men is increasingly difficult and it's something that I feel quite passionately about.
00:38So being able to walk for myself, for everything I've done, I feel quite proud of what I've come through with mental health.
00:48Massively proud, especially I was able to do it with my family, my children, my wife.
00:52You know, sometimes you don't realise the struggles and the people that are there supporting you.
00:56And I'm really lucky that my wife and my children, my mum and dad, have been there through my own mental health struggles.
01:03But today they're also able to walk alongside and help me carry the baton, which is a massive honour.
01:09I feel really, really honoured for that.
01:11And I was able to do it through Fratton Park as well.
01:14Yeah, my name is Mike McCarthy and I'm one of the co-founders of the suicide prevention charity at the Baton of Hope UK.
01:21And I'm currently chair and we're touring the country with something that's basically like an Olympic torch.
01:31But instead of celebrating physical prowess, it celebrates mental fitness and well-being.
01:38We're going to 20 different locations around the UK and today we're in Portsmouth.
01:43Then we go to Jersey, etc, etc, finishing in London on the 10th of October, which is World Mental Health Day.
01:51The reception's been incredible.
01:53We couldn't have imagined when we started the charity two and a half years ago that it would grow to the size that it has done today.
02:01And that people would be turning out like, you know, in public parks like this and talking openly and honestly about mental health challenges and emotional challenges and suicide, anxiety, depression, all of those things.
02:17All of those things that we've traditionally in the past brushed under the carpet and tried to pretend that they don't exist.
02:25But the problem with that is, you know, if people don't speak out about it and if they don't seek help, then we know what the consequences are.
02:33So this is about awareness, but it's also about change and creating a different society where we're more compassionate and more open about mental health.
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