When Lewis Cleator fell into the darkest depths of depression after losing one of his closest friends to suicide, it was his passion for poetry that brought him back to the light.
The martial arts promoter swapped his boxing gloves for pen and prose to prepare a heartfelt poem for his friend Chris Jackon's funeral in February 2022, and was amazed by the number of people who were touched by his work. Inspired, he decided to turn his secret hobby into a cause for good, using poetry to convey all aspects of mental health under the moniker The Scouse Poet.
He said: "I've suffered with my mental health since I was young, but I've always used poetry as a coping mechanism. I started writing poems about mental health, which I always kept secret.
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"I'd known Chris over 10 years. We used to work together and we were close, but then we went our separate ways and unfortunately we weren't close enough at the time. He didn't turn to anyone. I went to speak to his brother and the grandma of his children and they asked if I would read something at the funeral, so I made a poem which I read out in front of his family, which was a first for me. The impact it had was quite overwhelming at the time.
"Everyone said the same thing to me, so I started using TikTok, which I didn't know much about at the time, to put a couple of poems out there."
The dad of three has since amassed a following of more than 2,600 people on the video-based social media platform, which he uses to document his many poems about depression, anxiety, and overcoming adversity.
He said: "It created a spiral of messages about how it helped people feel like they weren't alone, and people could relate to the words. I'm hoping eventually I can publish some poems, and use the funds from that to support a mental health charity."
Lewis, 31, who lives in Halewood, first ventured into the world of poetry when he was 12, after his best friend Daniel Robson was killed by a car in Speke.
He said: "I've struggled with my own mental health ever since I was about 13, but I didn't understand what it was back then. It was only as I got older that I understood it a bit more.
"It affected quite a lot of things, my feelings, moods, motivations. I think that's why I got into poetry passionately, because it's motivated me to try and help others.
"When I wrote my first poem I would have been about 12, and I realised I was quite good with words and I started using that as a way of putting my words down without having to speak to anyone about them.
"It keeps my mind busy, thinking about what to write. A lot of the poems I've done are not how I feel now. They're about positions I've been in before. I speak to a lot of struggling people and I use what they're telling me in my words.
"There's a big stigma behind mental health and people may think it's over the top or upsetting but that's the reality. People who don't have mental health problems don't understand how it is, how people cope.
He added: "Mental health is something that will never go away. It's just one of those things we find ways of coping with. My main thing has been my family. I've got three beautiful kids, a beautiful fiance, and everything is for them now. It's given me a purpose.
"I'm fortunate enough to find myself in a happy place where I can give back where other people can't. People might read my poems and it might help them. I'd just love to use the platform to help even more."
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