‘It’s important that young people don’t feel they’re on their own’

A WELSH teenager plagued by severe anxiety is backing a top-level campaign in her battle against the bullies.

Casey-Jane Bishop, from the Cynon Valley, is facing her fears to give youngsters a voice as Barnardo’s today launched a hard-hitting TV advertising campaign on the themes of anxiety and bullying, which underlines the importance of mental health support services for children and teenagers.

She is one of three youngsters elected to the Welsh Youth Parliament to represent Barnardo’s Cymru and has called on schools to do more to reduce bullying and promote young people’s mental health by offering them safe spaces where they can talk about their concerns.

Findings in a return to school survey of more than 1,000 eight to 15-year-olds carried out for Barnardo’s by YouGov showed nearly three in every 10 children are concerned about changing schools, class or teachers – and for 11-year-olds who are moving to secondary school, this increases to more than half.

More than a third (35%) of youngsters worry someone they know might be bullied and they will have no-one to confide in.

Kicking and punching has been suffered by the friends of more than half of eight-year-olds.

The Barnardo’s advert being screened for the first time today uses images of hyenas following a girl to school, circling her in the playground and appearing on her phone in her bedroom to convey anxiety.

Casey-Jane, who would sometimes arrive in school bruised and scratched, said: “I’d describe anxiety as if my brain has a remote button that controls everything. I never know when it’s going to trigger or how bad it will be.

“I start shaking really badly, sometimes I start sweating and sometimes my speech becomes slurred.

“Since I’ve been receiving help, I’ve learnt to understand my anxiety more and I can recognise the signs. It’s kind of normal for me now.

“I was physically bullied from Year One or Two and had to move school.”

She added: “That was difficult because it also meant I had to leave all the children I had grown up with, and my new school felt like a desert island.

“That was when the anxiety really kicked in for the first time. I was always on edge and constantly looking around.

“I didn’t know it was anxiety until I reached crisis point. I was verbally and physically bullied at my second school, pushed around and bruised quite badly. It was a lot to deal with and I suffered from nightmares.”

The situation led her mother to speak