An army veteran will be hiking from London to Manchester to encourage others to discuss their mental health after he suffered from severe depression and suicidal thoughts after the birth of his daughter. Andy Schofield, from Manchester, completely withdrew from his friends and family and had even planned his suicide and note when his depression was at its worst.
The recruitment manager and ex-military police officer, 33, realised he was not alone when his brother opened up to him about his own mental health and he decided to seek support through counselling on the NHS. Andy now urges people, including other veterans, to talk more and be more open.
During the 217-mile walk Andy will carry 20kg of weight and will camp outside. This physically represents his mental health struggle.
READ MORE:
He said: “By completing it, I want to show people you can get through a mental struggle, and hopefully, I can help more people and get them talking about their mental health.”
Having left school with 18 GCSEs and college with three A Levels, Andy wanted a career which offered him structure rather than just academia. As a result in 2009 he enrolled in the British Army after a year of fitness training at age 21.
After completing training to become a military police officer he was posted to Northern Ireland a year later. He said: “The reason I joined the military was to go and serve in a war so I could do my part for the country. So I requested to be transferred over to Dunnington in Telford to complete my pre-deployment training.”
He then went with the Welsh Guards on Operation Herrick in Afghanistan in 2012, where he was tasked with securing the local area and training Afghanistan police officers.
He said: “At that point, I got what I wanted from the military. It changed my outlook on everything, and I wanted to leave to start a career whilst I was still young.”
In 2015 he left the military and got a job in a boutique recruitment company. After two years, he was offered the option of a management buyout and became a shareholder and a director. Later, he was recruited by Michael Page as a managing consultant.
Despite these successes, and Andy’s four-year-old daughter, Matilda, being born in 2018, he reached an incredibly low point in his life – he had severe depression, withdrew from all of his hobbies, did not want to see any of his friends and family and had suicidal thoughts.
He said: “Before that point, I was really close with my friends and family and at the time, was in a loving, committed relationship. Everything was going tremendously well. So I almost felt guilty that I couldn’t find joy in things because people have been much worse than me.
“I got to the point where I couldn’t get out of bed most days because I couldn’t deal with the world. My relationship with my partner at the time broke down, and I moved out of the family home.
“That’s when the suicidal thoughts started creeping in.It just culminated to the point where I genuinely believed, at that moment, that I was a negative impact on everybody around me and that the shorter time I was in my daughter’s life, the better life she would have.
“Because of that, the suicidal thoughts became much louder and much more prevalent in my mind, to the point where I couldn’t think about anything else. I was obsessed.I had a plan of how I was going to do it – it was just a matter of when. It wasn’t a matter of if.
“I mentally wrote the note that I was going to write. I was truly at rock bottom.”
But, Andy’s brother, Robert Schofield, 35, a personal trainer, began to notice he was not acting like his usual self, and he had not been attending the gym, so invited him along one day. Little did Andy know the conversation he would have that day would be the start of his life turning around.
He said: “Just out of nowhere, my brother turned to me and said, ‘I’ve been really struggling mentally recently, having real deep negative thoughts’.That conversation, having that ability to speak freely to me, made me feel relieved and maybe that I’m not alone.
“I thought, maybe, I should have more conversations with close family and friends that I trust and open up to them. That gave me the power, and I decided to go and see a professional.”
So, at the beginning of 2020, Andy decided to reach out to the NHS, and he saw a therapist for six to 12 months, which allowed him to work through why he was feeling the way he was. Andy had not been as open talking about his feelings before and explained his experience in the military: “It wasn’t really anything that was spoken about. I think people were afraid to speak out in fear of the stigma and judgement.
“I’m trying to get rid of that stigma, and encourage those conversations and show people that it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, mental health can affect everybody,” he said.
“So, talking about it is actually really beneficial.”
To do just that, Andy will be walking from the cenotaph in London on December 5 to the cenotaph in Manchester on December 9. To prepare, after his weekday gym sessions, he completes a 10 km (6.2 miles) walk while carrying a 20 kg load in his backpack, and, at weekends, he spends hours alone doing gruelling walks of 25-30 miles.
Andy’s arrival in Manchester coincides with Walking With the Wounded’s regional fundraising walk in the city. Two other mass participation walks are being held on the same day in Newcastle and London.
To donate, click here.
For more of today's top stories, click here.
READ NEXT:
- Police issue update after man, 26, dies and three others critically hurt injured in horror smash
- 'I just sleep with a jacket to keep warm and woke up with no pants on this morning - it was freezing'
- Seventh child reported to have died from Strep A as parents warned of signs and symptoms
- Greater Manchester weather forecast as temperatures set to plunge amid Met Office UK snow warning
- 'I thought Michael was the one - until the night out I thought he'd kill me'
