Black Dog Journey

Black Dog Journey
Homer wearing a coat
designed by contemporary
artist Duggie Fields
with the theme
‘It’s raining cats and dogs’
in the Victoria Quarter,
Leeds.
“It can be easier to say that we are having a Black Dog day,
or that the Black dog is on our shoulder, when we want to express
painful moods and thoughts that are difficult to communicate.
We hope that people will find a new language to convey inner
feelings like anxiety, depression and loneliness.”
Marjorie Wallace CBE
News, views and tweets
People with depression are
at greater risk of physical
illnesses and early death.
SANE’s Black Dog Campaign received prime media coverage across
national press and popular broadcast radio, including The Observer,
Evening Standard, British Medical Journal and BBC Radio London.
The campaign has captured the imagination of people - old and
young alike. It is helping people to ’frame’ their darker feelings as
something visible and tangible.
One in five people will
experience depression
at some point in their lives
and one in 20 will suffer
severe depression.
Depression and anxiety
lead to more working
days lost than any other
health condition, and it
is estimated that in 2010,
£8.97 billion was lost in
earnings due to people
being unable to work.
On the social media front, Stephen Fry, Beverley Knight, and
Alastair Campbell have led a chorus of tweets.
“I’ve had family members touched by the ‘Black Dog’ and it was a
cathartic and healing experience visiting the sculptures”.
Tweet from a campaign supporter.
Black Dogs on tour
Each dog sculpture is cast from the same mould. To personalise individual Black Dogs they have been given
a name, unique coat and a collar of hope with information about SANE.
Horace, our first dog, was born at the 3D Eye studios in West London. According to classical mythology,
the poet Horace was the first to use the black dog metaphor to describe his darker moods - phrase later
popularised by Sir Winston Churchill.
The unveiling of Horace took
place at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall on London’s Southbank. It
was a celebratory evening with
Ray Davies, Clive Anderson and
friends. From there he moved
onto Islington’s N1 Shopping
Centre before heading west to
the Oxford Street Plaza. After
resting in Altab Ali Park in
Whitechapel, Horace is visiting
the Science Museum. He’ll then
go to John Lewis, Stratford in
time for the 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games.
Mother and child admiring Horace at the
N1 Shopping centre.
The artist Anthony Cleyndert, de-signed
the first coat. On describing the inspiration
for the design he said, “Black and white
are the contours of the mind: colour is the
beauty of the soul.”
Rory and Homer quickstep to Leeds
Our second Black Dog, Homer, sponsored by Legal and General, came
into the world a few weeks later. Before arriving at L&G headquarters,
Homer headed to Leeds where he was unveiled by SANE patron, Rory
Bremner taking time out from his Strictly Come Dancing rehearsals. At
the champagne celebration, hosted by Harvey Nichols, Rory showed
off his newly acquired dance moves.
After a few days in residence at the Victoria Quarter shopping arcade,
Homer took up a spot at the Love Arts Leeds Festival as a feature of
their mental health awareness programme. Now, settled at L&G he will
be the focus of their employee mental wellbeing scheme.
Marjorie Wallace, SANE’s Chief Executive
and patron Rory Bremner in dance pose
while admiring Homer.
The next Black Dog, Hugo, was a
collaboration between SANE supporters
and long-standing patron Joanna Lumley.
Individual campaign
donations allowed us
to put a third dog into
production. Joanna
Lumley, who stars as
Patsy in Absolutely
Fabulous designed
this wonderfully
flamboyant, ‘AbFab’style coat of stars,
hearts and kisses.
Hugo is based at the City of London’s smart,
new shopping destination, One New Change, a
stone’s-throw from St Paul’s Cathedral. Joanna chose
his name after her own pet Labrador.
Dog goes to University
The next dog, Kalman, was sponsored by
the Franklin family.
Mrs Charlotte Franklin is a former Oxford
graduate who takes an interest in mental
health especially the number of suicides
amongst students. A keen ceramicist, her
coat design is centred around an intricate
mosaic and the dog has a Venetian
inspired gilt collar. The message on the
plinth will read ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ healthy mind in a healthy body.
Kalman in the studio—receiving some finishing touches.
Clinical Dog
We have a Black Dog sponsored by psychotherapist Anna Albright and a group of her clinical colleagues including
Dr Mark Collins, Dr Elza Eapen, Miss Karen Levy, Dr Jeremy Pfeffer, Dr Gillian Waldron and The Fitton Trust.
“It’s a great campaign. You’ve already got celebrity and corporate supporters, I just felt you really must have some
clinical professionals on board”. Anna Albright
Iconic pop musician and solo artist Adam Ant designed the coat for ‘Clinical Dog’.
Salty Dog
The stunning nautical coat of Salty Dog was designed by Helen and
Colin David for world renowned fashion label English Eccentrics and
made by Barbour in waxed cotton with tartan lining. Gaining control
over the Black Dog was a message literally woven into the coat by
expert embroiders Hand and Lock. Salty’s coat encourages us to “Lead
him for you are his Master”.
Salty became a sea dog to conjure up the metaphor of the ocean and
describe sending depression away on a voyage. His silver
anchor reminds us of the importance of feeling secure and creating a
safe harbour for those affected by mental illness.
Special thanks are due to Scott
Gordon Heron at Hand and
Lock, Lynn Vasey at Barbour
and Sarah Holly Sayeed.
Black Dog goes to School
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Care Services Minister Paul Burstow visited the City of London
Academy School on the day they announced the extra £22 million government investment for children’s
mental health. SANE staff carried out workshops with the stu-dents. The Black Dog sculptures have proved
popular with young people as is giving them a more accessible, ‘user-friendly’ way of talking about a
sensitive subject.
Influencing the
political agenda
Charles Walker MP, Co-Chair of the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Mental
Health, wrote a letter on our behalf to all
650 MPs, to draw their attention to the
campaign and encourage support. We
have suggested MPs raise the issue of
depression and mental health through
Parliamentary Questions and lobby for
additional funding for mental health
research and services. “SANE’s Black Dog
campaign is a stroke of genius”.
Black Dog at
the Science
Museum
‘Lates’
A pack of Black Dogs
welcomes over 3000
visitors to the Science
Museum for one of their
‘Lates’ evenings. The
event is dedicated to
mental health.
Friends of the campaign
“The more we are open about mental health issues, the better it is for those with mental illness and for society as a
whole. So I am delighted to support this campaign.”
Alastair Campbell
With thanks
to our
sponsors
Anna Albright
Ian Askew
Charitable Trust
Mr David Barrere
Mrs Elizabeth Boyling
The Arnold Burton
1998 Charitable Trust
The Fitton Trust
The Franklin
Family
Deloitte LLP
Dr Mark Collins
Dr Elza Eapen
Dr Ros and
Anthony Furlong
Morny & Ian
Hay Davison CBE
InterSteels Ltd
Legal & General
Group PLC
Miss Karen Levy
Mrs Annie
Macdonald
The Norman
Family Trust
Dr Jeremy Pfeffer
SANE supporters
Dr Nina Storms
and Black Dog Tribe
Jane Asher, Stephen Fry, Ruby Wax, Alastair Campbell, Ray Davies CBE, Dr Mark Collins, Jenny Eclair, Professor Peter Fonagy, Judith
Owen, Clive Anderson, Ian Hislop, KT Tunstall, Marie Helvin, Gerald Scarfe CBE, Harry Shearer, Sally Brampton, Hattie Hayridge,
Dame Judi Dench CH DBE, Matthew Johnstone, Michael Palin CBE, Ian Shaw, Beverley Knight MBE, Barry Cryer, Carole Stone
Lady Juliet Tadgell
Dr Gillian Waldron
How you can help
SANE continues to need your help to purchase more dogs so the campaign can have more impact
and raise funds.
•
Adopt a Black Dog by donating £25 and becoming a friend of the campaign. This enables SANE to
provide an hour of emotional guidance and practical help to someone in crisis.
•
Sponsor a Black Dog. The name of your business or group of businesses will feature on the plinth. It
costs £5,000 to bring a Black Dog to your community. This covers the cost of production, designing the
decorative coat and preparing the plinth.
•
Club together with friends, colleagues, Facebook contacts or other networks and organise a Black Dog
lunch or tea.
•
Spread the word about the campaign via your social media networks, community blogs and
newsletters
•
You can donate £3 by texting SANE to 70300. £3 will support SANE’s Black Dog cam-paign by enabling
us to respond to someone in distress with high-quality emotional support.
•
For more information and to order Black Dog campaign banners, badges and wristbands visit www.
sane.org.uk/what_we_do/black_dog/
SANE’s ‘Black Dogmobile’ gets on
the road
We would like to thank the wonderful folk at ecourier for their
support in transporting our dogs to their various locations
countrywide.