Chris Kirkland (Live Show Part 2)

The Proper Mental Live Show was recorded in front of an audience on 9th November 2021 to raise money for The Open Door Centre, a local young person’s support service.

You can learn more about them here Open Door Charity - Shaping Change

In total we raised enough money to fund 103 hours of their peer-to-peer support programme!

My second guest for the evening was Chris Kirkland!

Chris is a football coach and former goalkeeper for Coventry, Liverpool and Wigan.

In 2001, at the age of 20, he was the most expensive goalkeeper in English football when Liverpool paid Coventry £8 million for his services.

Since retiring from playing football in 2016, Chris has spoken regularly about his own lived experience with depression and mental health.  He is an active advocate in the local community and well known for lending his time and voice to important causes.

Chris’ openness and honesty around mental health is inspiring and he gives a fascinating insight in to the life of a football player at the highest level and everything that comes with it.

I loved chatting to Chris, he is the loveliest man, with a powerful story and he has a fantastic approach to all thing’s mental health.

Chris is involved with the walking and talking charity @walkingsbrill and works closely with Liverpool Football Club and the LFC Foundation Home (liverpoolfc.com).

Chris has also teamed up with Edge Hill University and St Bede’s Catholic High School in Ormskirk, Lancashire, to launch Make Talk Your Goal, which we chat about in the episode.  The campaign will see leading speakers from the world of sport and the arts promote conversations around mental health among boys and young men.

Connect with me on social media @propermentalpodcast or via www.propermentalpodcast.com

You can support the podcast at www.buymeacoffee.com/propermental or by taking just a minute to rate and review on iTunes.

If you need to find support in your local area, contact www.hubofhope.co.uk

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!