Salford woman who attempted suicide ‘overwhelmed’ with reaction to social media mental health campaign

A woman from Salford who attempted to take her own life three years ago is now helping other who are suffering with similar issues.

Rebecca McAllister set up the charity 4mindzfoundation three-weeks ago and has already gained 18,000 followers on Instagram.

 

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Using a ‘love’ hand gesture across social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram, Rebecca, 31, wants to spread positivity.

Rebecca said: “In 2018 I tried to commit suicide, so seeing the growth of the charity is very overwhelming and very emotional. Especially for me because I have such a close connection to the campaign, which is suicide prevention. It is a great honour to be able to headline a campaign that so many people have got behind.

“I am born and bred Salford and I think that we have a stigma attached to us that we are quite a rough society. Which is why I think it is important that we keep where I come from in this.

“Salford is a community that does get a lot of bad publicity and I don’t think it’s very fair because we’re the same as everyone else. We bleed the same, we stress the same, we worry the same and we all have problems.

“It’s not just the fact that I’m doing this for everybody else it’s important that people know I’m from Salford because it gets enough bad press so maybe for the first time something good comes from where I’m from.

Rebecca joined forces with three other Salfordians including 24 year old Paige Leanne Kilvington, to set up the charity as all have battled mental illness.

The foundation encourages its followers to take a simple photo of themselves holding up the love hand gesture as this symbol is what has been successful in spreading awareness to the topic of mental health.

Gemma Pratt was helped by the campaign and is now a volunteer.

She said: “It’s been a big thing for me because I haven’t really been open on my social media page about my mental health. That was until ‘4mindz’ came about and I’ve been able to talk about it a little bit more.

It was something I sort of kept to myself and now I’m sharing it with all my followers and just everybody in my friends and family, so ‘minzfoundation’ really helped me to get people aware of what I struggle with.

The foundation has set up an event in Liverpool next week, 14th November, with the aim to come together and raise awareness to their campaign as well as open the conversation on mental health as a whole.