Sportspiel

Alasdair Hooper hosts the fourth Mental Health Awareness Week episode all themed around mental health and sport in the LGBTQ community. Joining the podcast for the discussion are Karina Murray, of Sporting Pride Ireland, Assistant Editor at Goal, Emma Smith, and also Martin Stark, the CEO and founder of the World Gay Boxing Championships. Of course, being from the LGBTIQ+ community doesn't mean you will automatically have issues with your mental health. However, a recent Stonewall study found that over the previous year half of LGBTIQ+ people had experienced depression and three in five had experienced anxiety. One in eight LGBTIQ+ people aged 18-24 had attempted to end their life and almost half of trans people half thought about taking their life. Each one of our guests also has their own story to tell. For Mark, he didn't come out until the age of 27 and he came close to dying in 2017 from Addison's Disease, an experience that prompted him to take a self-defence class and then boxing that