A FORMER Lymm High School sixth form student returned yesterday, Monday, to give an impactful talk on mental health and how he has used his experience to create a thriving social media page.

Dan Gordon, 24, has suffered from depression and a mental breakdown in recent years, but following World Mental Health Day on Sunday, he returned to his school and sixth form to provide talks to help youngsters around Warrington.

The Lymm man, now a policy officer for West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, spoke about his personal battles and advised year 12 and 13 students as to what they can do to ensure good mental health.

“It’s so important to talk about these issues. Like I said in the presentation, you can’t get any help unless you speak. The younger generation is much better than when I was at school at talking about it.

“It felt surreal to be on the other side of it because you’re used to being on the other side of assemblies.

“The reason I wanted to do it was to show them there is someone like them, a bit older who has been through it and can show that you can recover and get better.

“The key thing I wanted to do hit home was to speak about your mental health because that’s the most important thing.

Dan, who now lives in Manchester, set up a mental health page on Instagram to share stories of different types of mental health issues.

He did so himself on Strength in Stories, and now the page has amassed nearly 900 followers and even an appearance from the former political aide, Alistair Campbell MBE.

“I just emailed him and got lucky. He replied and out of the kindness in his heart, he did it. It was really good of him. It’s good to get someone like that on the page, having someone like him helps as he has a following and that gets more people to see it.

“When you see someone who has been really successful in the public eye talk about it, it has a bit more of an impact because you think ‘if they can do it, I can’.

“The more people that see it the better.”

Hayley Jennings, head of sixth form at Lymm High said was best pleased to have Dan return and speak about his experience.

“It made me feel pretty old given that he left seven years ago,” she said.

“I just think it’s really important that we are talking about these kinds of issues with people, it’s also lovely that Dan can reduce the stigma around mental health in young men.

“The practical advice he gave to young people with strategies to look after their mental health was really helpful and he did it in a well-meaning way which I hope will resonate with young people more as it’s far more real when you’ve got somebody who has had that experience themselves.

Dan is keen to speak on more schools about his story and feature more stories on his page which you can find here.