The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Beauty queen Louisa Thomson, who works for the Mental Health Crisis Team in Fife, models a new charity tartan.
Beauty queen helps launch design from Support in Mind Scotland
A top beauty queen wrapped up warm yesterday as she modelled the world’s first mental health charity tartan.
Louisa Thomson, who was a finalist in this year’s Miss Great Britain, donned the tartan for the first time yesterday.
The 27-year-old, who is also the reigning Miss Stirling, wants to use her position to help people talk openly about their mental health.
Louisa, who works for the Mental Health Crisis Team in Fife, said: “As a mental health nurse, I know anyone can suffer from mental illness and, sadly, there is still a stigma attached to mental health that doesn’t exist for other illnesses.
“Support in Mind Scotland and other organisations are working hard to increase understanding of mental illness and to support not only people living with mental health issues but their families and carers too.”
The tartan, which will be woven exclusively in Scotland by Ingles Buchan, was commissioned by charity Support in Mind Scotland (SiMS).
It was commissioned to celebrate the charity’s decades of helping those going through a hard time since becoming independent in 1984.
The charity says one in four people will experience a mental health problem each year and one in 100 will experience a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
SiMS helps around 2,000 people affected by mental health problems every year.
SiMS chief executive Frances Simpson said: “We are proud to launch our new, unique Support in Mind Scotland tartan – the first mental health charity tartan in the world.”