Campaigner will walk 151 miles to highlight post-Covid mental health crisis

A mental health campaigner will walk from Parliament to Parliament to send message about the mental health crisis amidst Covid inquiry

A mental health campaigner vows to walk 151 miles from London to Cardiff to send a message to politicians about the mental health crisis post-Covid.

Bhupinder Sandhu, 45, is a campaigner and mindfulness coach, who for a living helps companies and individuals reduce their stress levels by teaching meditation techniques and healthy lifestyle habits. He is now taking on the challenge of walking from London's Parliament Square to the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff in December.

During the pandemic, he struggled with his mental health and has since felt the need to do something "bigger" to make real changes for mental health issues.

His distress heightened in the pandemic following the news of his neighbour’s suicide due to the loneliness of lockdown.

Bhupinder told the Mirror: "We used to see him every single day and have a chat… We only figured out he had committed suicide when the police were at his door, so that was the saddest bit. A young person and how badly it affected his mental health being alone, stuck in his house by himself, so that was the peak… he was in his thirties."

Suicide is the main cause of death in young people under the age of 35 in the UK, according to PAPRYUS Prevention of Young Suicide.

Bhupinder continued: "It was really sad for me, and I felt sorry for the parents because they were stuck in India…the whole situation just made me think what on Earth is happening, and everything was saddening and depressing in that moment."

Bhupinder, who moved to the UK from India in 2004 to pursue higher studies, spoke of the added layer of loneliness he experienced in lockdown as a migrant.

He explained: "My immediate family were in India, so that was proper isolation, it was like living on a different planet... It made me realise the importance of social connections, so it was really hard in those times."

Since Covid, Bhupinder has gotten more involved in mental health campaigning and spoke to ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock in 2021, and later, the richest man in the UK, Gopi Hinduja, to help raise awareness about the mental health crisis.

Bhupinder decided to step up to the challenge of a 9-day trek from London Parliament Square to the Welsh Parliament this December, in his continuous efforts to speed up action from politicians and to highlight the UK mental health crisis. He felt the need to push things even further after Covid.

He explained more: "I did 3 events in Parliament, one in 2021, one in 2022 and one this year as well.

"For the first one, I met Matt Hancock, the MP at the time - I also spoke to Gopi Hinduja… so the message can be given to the top and filtered down so they can understand the importance of mental health.

"When you’re sitting at the top, with all the infrastructure around you to help you and cater to you, you don't understand the problems of a normal person… So I did 3 events in Parliament, and will hopefully do another one in a couple of months again.

"Then I walked from London to Edinburgh last December - to raise awareness about mental health. We started from Parliament Square and finished at the Scottish Parliament."

Bhupinder hopes that his 9-day walk from London Parliament Square to the Welsh Parliament this December will help bring greater funding and awareness to mental health issues and services. This will be his second big walk.

"Before the pandemic, I was just a normal corporate coach who’d just go in to teach people… The pandemic made me realise that if I have a gift I need to share it for free as well and give it to people… There are so many people who aren't even aware that they need to look after their mental health. There is help out there and they can reach out. So the pandemic was one of the big things that started this journey for me in a different direction."

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