Melvyn Bragg resigns as president of ‘Mind’
By Catherine Walker
Melvyn Bragg is probably best remembered from his former position as presenter of The South Bank Show but for the last 15 years he has been president of ‘Mind’ the mental health charity.
Lord Bragg, 71 has had his own battles with mental health having suffered two nervous breakdowns. The second of these occurred after the suicide of his first wife. Melvyn Bragg had left her to be with Cate Haste who he later married.
‘I hope this is the last time I will talk about those times.’ Lord Bragg told Mandrake in The Telegraph. ‘People rake it up in every interview and that’s OK but it happened 40 years ago. I have had a life since then. What I want to say now is that people get through it and go on with the rest of their lives.’
Lord Bragg went on to say that he cannot, however, quite shake the fear that it could happen to him again.
‘I don’t know why those other things happened and I suppose I still have myself branded with the old thing that there is some failing in oneself and this failure could reoccur. I don’t think it is like that but I carry that old tradition in me’ he concluded.
Melvyn Bragg has tirelessly campaigned to improve attitudes to mental illness since he had his own breakdown but he is now stepping down from his role as president of ‘Mind’.
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