The 2024 Janey Antoniou Award for campaigning
Nominations for the Janey Antoniou Award are now open.
At Rethink Mental Illness we know the impact that campaigners with lived experience of mental illness can have.
Janey Antoniou was a dear friend of Rethink Mental Illness and an inspirational colleague. During her 15 year career in mental health she worked tirelessly to improve the care of people living with mental health problems. Throughout all her achievements she lived with debilitating depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.
Each year we present the Janey Antoniou Award in recognition of an individual who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of people affected by mental illness and continue the legacy of Janey's work. Thanks to a generous gift from Janey's family, the winner of this award receives £1,000. Two finalists receive £100 each and all winners will be invited to our award ceremony at Members' Day this year.
Campaigning can mean different things to different people, so we are eager to hear about the ways in which you or someone you know has made a difference. The nominee doesn’t have to be a Rethink Mental Illness campaigner, so long as they are someone living with mental illness who has campaigned in a voluntary capacity (i.e. not as part of their job). People working professionally in mental health (as a peer support worker, social worker, psychiatrist, psychologist etc) will only be considered if they have made an exceptional contribution in addition to their professional role.
Their campaigning could be:
- Raising awareness of the realities of living with mental illness
- Combating stigma associated with mental illnesses
- Campaigning to improve the lives of people affected by mental illness by calling for better policies, practices or funding
Maybe they've been campaigning to raise awareness of mental illness in ethnic minority communities, challenging the myths and stigma about their condition or campaigning to improve services locally or nationally.
To enter, please submit your nomination to campaigns@rethink.org by 23 September 2024.
Previous winners
2023 Danny Bowman
Danny’s campaigning started in 2013 months after his recovery from body dysmorphic disorder. He recognised the need to speak out about the disorder and the unique experiences of men with body image issues.
Meet our 2023 Janey Antoniou Award Winners Meet our 2023 Janey Antoniou Award Winners
2022 António Ferreira
António is mental health activist, campaigner, public speaker, and expert by experience. He campaigns for anti-racism within the mental health sector, and wants to shift the way the public views and addresses mental ill health within racialised communities.
2021 Nkasi Stoll
Nkasi was highly commended for her amazing work in setting up Black Students Talk to support Black students with their mental health at university as well as writing a book on her mental illness journey and her discussions about the interplay between race, racism, identity, intersectionality and mental health inequality.
2019 Sue Wheatcroft
Sue is a campaigner and group coordinator who lives with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). She has made a huge difference on both a local and national level, and has set up a BPD support group.
2018 Joy Hibbins
A tireless and inspirational campaigner, Joy is the Founder and CEO of the charity Suicide Crisis and the driving force behind achieving the charity’s nation-wide recognition.
2017 Matthew Axbey
Matthew realised he had depression during his first time during university - but from there he took that experience and started Nightline Canterbury, a dedicated helpline for the students experiencing a mental health problem.
2016 Tamanna Miah
As a young Asian girl Tamanna Miah found it difficult to open up about her mental health. Rather than be silenced by the shame, Tamanna used her experience and began campaigning for young people's mental health.
2015 Steven Gilbert
Steven first recognised he was having mental health difficulties in his teens. Steven has taken his experiences to engage engage with the young African and Caribbean men in their local community.
2014 Chris Lynch
Chris, works tirelessly as a mental health campaigner and is a service-user representative for many organisations, including the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Chris aruns two of our local peer support groups.
2013 Jonny Benjamin
Jonny Benjamin was our very first award winner. His account of living with schizoaffective disorder helped launch him as an international campaigner. His personal account of living with mental illness was turned into the film ‘Finding Mike’.