TACKLING ISSUES

Rhinos skipper Ward and ‘SAS: Who Dares Wins’ champ Steadman join forces in aid of mental health

STEVIE WARD has teamed up with SAS:

Who Dares Wins champion Lauren Steadman to tackle the stigma of mental health.

The Leeds Rhinos skipper has become a leading campaigner since suffering depression over the years.

And he jumped at the chance to work with threetime paralympian Steadman after being introduced by TV personality Helen Skelton.

Ward said: “We’ve both competed in some of the toughest competitions and achieved great heights. But we both firmly believe our strength in mind is our greatest fuel, powering us through adversity.”

The pair designed a Tshirt that went on sale yesterday to coincide with the start of Men’s Health Week.

Ward said: “We talked about what we could do together and came up with this specially designed Tshirt with 100 per cent of the profits going to Young Minds.”

Steadman, born without a lower right arm, said: “There is never a perfect mindset but a positive confident optimistic mindset will get you far.”

The 2018 Strictly Come Dancing star overcame huge challenges to be crowned 2020 SAS: Who Dares Wins champion jointly with DJ Locksmith.

It was during the gruelling course that Steadman revealed her mental health campaign plans to fellow finalist Skelton, wife of Rhinos half back Richie Myler.

Ward said: “Helen linked us up because we’re doing similar things, me with Mantality and Lauren with her mental health mission Sizu. The old adage around mental health would be, ‘Don’t talk about it, just get on with it’, but that’s not healthy. It would be so rewarding if we can get a strength in mind message out there.”

Ward set up Mantality on-line mental health magazine in 2016

CRICKET ENGLAND v WEST INDIES after sinking into depression when injury ruled him out of Leeds’ historic Treble the year before.

It is a campaign that saw him work with Prince Harry and earned him a string of high-profile followers, including Boy George. He recently ran two-week mental health courses to help people improve their lives, particularly dealing with lockdown issues.

He said: “We had about 70 taking part and a lot of those have reached out to others, so the number of people we’ve helped could be a lot more.”

■ STRENGTH in Mind T-shirt is available from mantalityapparel. com and sizu-minds.myshopify.

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