Prince Harry sure Diana would support mental health campaign

Prince Harry is part of a yearlong effort to shed light on mental illness. He and his brother have spearheaded a movement to make talking about mental illness okay in the U.K., where up until now the tradition has been, “stiff upper lip”—that is, ignore the pain, pretend everything is fine, and soldier on.

Harry, Britain’s Prince of Wales, want to change the national character, so that people no longer have to suffer in silence.

He is sure his mother, the late Princess Diana, would have approved.

“I think she would be proud of the campaign, proud of everybody involved, proud of us, but specifically proud of the U.K. for having this conversation,” he said at an event kicking off the 2017 London Marathon.

The BBC will be airing a two-part documentary following 10 long-distance runners with mental problems as they prepare to compete in the London Marathon. This is all part of the effort to make mental health issues mainstream.

“I think the last year has really showed the whole of the U.K. and the rest of the world that mental health needs to be talked about,” he said.

“Specifically for the marathon, it doesn’t actually matter whether you’re running for cancer charities, homelessness, heart disease victims, whatever it be, the fact of the matter is that everything that everybody is running for links to one thing—mental health, mental fitness,” the prince said.

Harry broke with tradition earlier this week when he gave an in-depth interview about his own battle with mental unwellness following the death of his mother when he was 12. Prince Harry said he shut down emotionally for 20 years after the loss.

He felt that after a year of asking others to share their issues, it was his duty to the realm and his subjects to share his own struggles.

“It was the right time to have  that conversation and the right way to have it,” he explained.

“We’ve been doing this campaign for a year, every single person that we’ve met has come to us and shared. We’ve been asking everybody else to share.

“Now if there’s any way that our experiences in the past  can help with that and help other people come forward  and if our experiences, and sharing those experiences can help reduce the stigma for the rest of the U.K., then that’s where the duty and service bit comes in,” he said.

Healthier, happier people would make a healthier nation, Harry believes, “If we are able to put this country into a place where the younger generation especially, but everybody, can talk about their mental health, I personally believe that a healthy, happy country is a successful country and that’s exactly why we wanted to do this campaign and to smash the stigma.”