Top politicians join York charity (From York Press)

Top politicians join York charity

8:38am Monday 29th December 2008 in Search By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

TWO big-name politicians who hail from York have become patrons of a mental health charity based in the city.

They are former Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vincent Cable, who have been welcomed as the new patrons of York & District Mind.

Mike Beckett, the charity’s director, said: “It is hoped these well-known names will help raise the charity’s profile and help us to secure additional funding.

“York & District Mind is a local charity that offers help and support to people with close personal experience of mental distress. We are political with a small ‘p’ and look to engage with every party. We are particularly looking for a high-profile Conservative patron for balance.”

Mr Cable was acting leader of the Liberal Democrats until the election of Nick Clegg.

Cable – a keen ballroom dancer – has also expressed his desire to appear on and win the BBC’s hit TV show, Strictly Come Dancing.

Having witnessed the effects of mental distress while growing up, he decided to undertake mental health nursing at The Retreat Hospital in York, early in his career.

Mr Cable met his wife, Olympia, who was also nursing at The Retreat then and they later married, and he went on to spend two decades living and campaigning in York.

Mr Dobson said: “The work Mind does is invaluable because mental health generally doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Nor can it always be separated from physical ill health.

“The pain and debilitation of a physical ailment can make people sick in mind as well as in body, while some mental illnesses can exacerbate people’s physical suffering and set back chances of recovery. So I feel honoured to be invited to become a patron of York & District Mind. Their new befriending service and the increased number of counsellors and support groups will be a great help both to people suffering from mental illness and to their relatives and friends. “This, together with the new premises opened in October by my good friend and colleague (York MP) Hugh Bayley, should raise the standard of treatment and care – quite right for the city of York with its long-standing reputation for pioneering work in the humane treatment of mental illness.”