Hope Virgo Lifts the Stigma on Mental Health

Wellbeing Week is taking place from the 10-14th October. As part of this week, and giving voice to mental health, on the 12th, we will be welcoming Hope Virgo. Hope is a mental health campaigner, speaker and author, and she will be discussing the impact and severity of both mental health issues, and eating disorders, with the learners at Weston College.

In 2016, Hope realised the stigma faced by those affected is huge, and she wanted to do more to help. Through the sharing of her own story, as well as trying to showcase to society that eating disorders can be present in all body types, she began writing and speaking in schools. Hope has been doing this for around 5 years now!

Hope’s aim for the talk with the learners is to raise awareness for those who are struggling, and to educate everyone. Furthermore, she hopes to teach the learners how to hold a conversation on the topic of mental health, and come to the understanding that people are able to make a full recovery.

Hope’s advice for a student who is struggling is to seek support, surround yourself with the right people, speak up, and have confidence that things can change! As for the whole college, Hope reminds us to continue talking about eating disorders, and to make the college a safe place for anyone struggling.

On October 17th, Hope is launching an eating disorder manifesto and a school nurse toolkit to assist in empowering people to have the tricky conversations and to push for commitment from the government to further tackle the issue at hand.

Hope tells the college: “For too long people have been left suffering in silence and people have spent too long shying away from conversations around eating disorders as they are afraid of triggering people and causing upset. I want to help empower students to speak up and to offer support to each other.”

We look forward to hearing her talk and empower our learners!

If you want to get involved with, and support this initiative, you can:

• Sign the #DumpTheScales petition.
• Take a photo and use the #ChangeTheStory hashtag when sharing.
• Avoid diet chat as it could be triggering for others.
• Check in with each other.

Follow Hope Virgo here:

• Instagram: @hopevirgo_
• Twitter: @hopevirgo

Keep an eye on our social media platforms to see what else we will be doing for Wellbeing Week!