It has been announced today that the mental health charity Mind will sponsor the first ever Wellbeing award at the 2017 Lycamobile British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSAs) on March 18th. Sir Lenny Henry will host the awards ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Mind is the leading mental health charity in the UK. It provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem, as well as campaigning to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

Mind has worked extensively to promote the benefits of physical activity on mental health through its Get Set to Go programme, funded by Sport England and the National Lottery. Its projects, ranging from grass-roots participation to elite sport, aim to build resilience, enable and support mental health recovery and reduce the stigma around mental health.

Mind will sponsor the first ever Wellbeing award at the BEDSAs, which will showcase the best projects or individuals championing mental wellbeing of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. One if its key priorities is to raise the profile of how sport can help improve mental wellbeing amongst people from BAME communities.

The BEDSAs, as they have become known, are now in their third year and organised by Sporting Equals, the national partner of Sport England and advisors to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.  Sponsored by Lycamobile, the world’s largest mobile virtual network operator, the Awards are leading the way in recognising and celebrating sporting excellence within BAME communities.

Arun Kang, CEO of Sporting Equals said:

“Sporting Equals are proud to have Mind on board for our third Awards. The Award will help us highlight the issues of mental wellbeing and the benefits of sport. This partnership with Mind will be more than showcasing projects and individuals and will ensure we can work together to engage and build awareness of mental wellbeing to BAME communities particularly those from African Caribbean communities and south Asian women”.

Paul Farmer CBE, CEO of Mind said:

“We are proud to sponsor the first ever Wellbeing award at the BEDSAs which recognises those people and projects that are championing mental health in BAME communities. Mind knows how key a role physical activity can play in mental wellbeing, ranging from building resilience, to enabling and supporting mental health recovery, as well as tackling the stigma that sadly still exists. We look forward to working more closely with Sporting Equals as part of our work around sport and physical activity in 2017.”

Previous winners of the Lycamobile BEDSAs include Denise Lewis, Lewis Hamilton, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Moeen Ali and Frank Bruno.