We’re almost in November and the year seems to have passed by so quickly. I’m very grateful for all the support that’s been gifted and very proud of what BRIT has achieved so far this year. BRIT might seem to be taking a little longer to move forward, however we are maintaining our core values and principles; minimal overheads, no public fundraising and no duplication of effort. We have operated with pro-bono and gifted support which has come from relationships that started this time last year with individuals and organisations that had faith in BRIT and I.
We are gearing up for a busy winter with the start of the BRIT 2012 Challenge taking place on the 24th January 2012. The new challenge will bring together young people, organisations and the public supporting the vision of BRIT. I am delighted that Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT, has recently agreed to support the roll out of the Challenge and General Sir David Richards is also keen for the Armed Forces to become involved.
I talk about the BRIT vision on a daily basis and this reminds me of the vital need to deliver self-worth, self-esteem and self-confidence to young people who are facing their darkest times. This is very personal to me as I know the importance of someone believing in you until you believe in yourself. I was very fortunate to be inspired to overcome physical adversity at an early stage in my recovery and the inspirational figures who believed in me including Sir Ran Fiennes, Sir Steve Redgrave and Ben Fogle have never stopped believing in me and are now BRIT Mentors. The list of Mentors continues to grow and all these national figures understand the importance of gifting 24hrs of their time with young people to ignite that self-belief.
What has become evident to me more recently is that the hardest battle is overcoming the psychological challenges adversity can have. After spending a year away from interviews and public profile, I now feel comfortable to talk openly and frankly about mental anguish as it’s easy to talk about the physical journey and the physical challenges I set myself, but a very different story when you discuss feelings in public. It has taken me some time to realize that despite BRIT being all about supporting those young people facing dark times, you have to talk about it on a personal level for people to understand it. Now is that time and I am excited to be embarking on a journey that will take me around the British Isles. By spending time with young people and delivering the positive message that seeking help, communicating fears and dealing with mental anguish is absolutely fine, will ensure BRIT is known as an organisation that focuses on the positives.
I know firsthand the power of inspiration to engender self-belief and I will use the BRIT 2012 Challenge to raise the profile of BRIT and to focus on three key elements; empowering young people to be involved with BRIT, enthusing companies to build BRIT with us and asking the public to join me and support their charities through the BRIT 2012 Challenge.
This is the busiest time I have encountered so far and also the most important. The pro-bono support of gifting time to BRIT has never been needed more, so in the next few weeks I am hoping we are joined by seconded and voluntary staff to deliver our biggest challenge yet. If you can help, do get in touch and I look forward to introducing the BRIT 2012 Challenge to you very soon.
My very best wishes,
Phil.