TAKE IT OUTSIDE

Mind and Go Outdoors have teamed up to encourage more people to spend time in nature

I didn't really know much about mental health issues," says TV presenter Sean Fletcher. "Then my son got ill with obsessive compulsive disorder. He missed a year of school and it really affected our family. What I've come to learn is that mental illness can be just as debilitating as a physical problem."

It was at this time that Fletcher began running outdoors.

"Running felt like a real outlet," he says. "So I carried on and ended up doing four London marathons." At the same time, Fletcher's work on BBC's Countryfile and ITV Wales' Coast to Country gave him a growing appreciation of how the outdoors could ease mental health struggles.

While filming in Wales' Gower peninsula, Fletcher met a retired police officer who had become a seal warden: "He talked about how it had totally transformed his mental health. In the police, he was dealing with all the bad news stories, and it was a hard time. Now he's outdoors, looking after seals - he puts loads in but he gets so much more back for his mental health."

Fletcher's experiences - along with former Arsenal and England goalkeeper David Seaman and fellow TV presenter Gethin Jones - encouraged him to become an ambassador for Hats On For Mind, a campaign running at Go Outdoors, Blacks, Millets and Fishing Republic.

All profits from the sale of branded hats and flasks will go to support mental health charity Mind's vital work encouraging people to spend some time outdoors in a bid to boost their mental wellbeing.

Breathe it all in

A 2019 Frontiers In Psychology study found that spending just ten minutes in urban nature environments, such as parks, three times a week, can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol by 21.3%. Meanwhile, a 2020 paper for the NHS found that exposure to watery blue spaces or tree-lined green spaces can lower blood pressure and improve mental health outcomes.