Big names support schoolboys to talk openly
She was balancing high-performance hockey, full-time study and living off a small income. She was in an ‘‘unhealthy’’ relationship. She suffered repeated sports injuries. And when Pippa Hayward was dropped from the Blacks Sticks, it was the final straw.
The New Zealand hockey star reveals she struggled with anxiety in 2014, which affected her diet and appetite. ‘‘Mentally I was struggling and developed quite bad anxiety attacks frequently that would just come on; it was not a nice time.’’
It got to a point when she got home one day and could not stop hyperventilating. However, she sought help from a psychologist outside of the team, gaining a safe place and someone to talk to.
Today Hayward, her Black Sticks teammates and other well-known New Zealanders step up to support a brave and unusual initiative by a group of year 13 students: a cookbook to help people through depression.
The young entrepreneurs from Appetite Aotearoa, in Timaru, have recorded videos of top entertainers and sports people speaking about their personal experiences with depression – and cooking.
QR codes found in the pages of the cookbook click through to the videos.
All Black legend Sir John Kirwan leads Olympians Tom Walsh, Natalie Rooney, Eliza McCartney, Lisa Carrington, Sarah Walker and Sophie Pascoe in speaking out to support the initiative.
They are joined by former Prime Minister Sir John Key, Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt, comedian Dai Henwood, rally driver Hayden Paddon, TV presenter Jack Tame, chef Nadia Lim, golfer Ryan Fox and many more.
In her Sunday Star-Times column today, well-known broadcaster Nadine Higgins reveals she, too, has been struggling this year: ‘‘I knew I was supposed to talk to someone, but felt like no one could possible understand why I was talking about death when I had a wonderful life.’’
She had considered taking her own life; instead she talked to one friend, and then another, and realised she wasn’t alone. They encouraged her to see a doctor – now she wants others who are battling depression to know they are not alone; that they have people they can talk to.
The voices of well-known Kiwis come amid increased calls for an independent inquiry into New Zealand’s mental health crisis.
Families and friends of suicide victims are making their way to Parliament from Bluff and Cape Reinga, with 579 pairs of shoes to represent those who took their own lives in 2016.
And new suicide statistics reveal that number is likelty to top 600 this year.
Year 13 Roncalli College students Hamish Scarsbrook, Isaac Matson, Michael Kemp, Oliver Noone and Marcell Meyer held the official launch of their cookbook in Timaru on Friday.
Hayward praised the Appetite Aotearoa team’s initiative as ‘‘awesome’’.
‘‘They could be saving lives, and it’s powerful.’’