Welcome to Proper Mental Episode 11!

This week Tom sits down with England International Cricketer Kate Cross!

@crossy is an England regular who also plays for Lancashire domestically.

At the age of 16 she was the first female to be accepted into Lancashire's cricket academy and in April 2014, she was one of the 18 women to be awarded the first professional contracts by the England Cricket Board.

A few weeks ago, Kate put an incredibly honest and brave post on her social media about her struggles with mental health.  I asked if she would like to join me on the podcast and she signed up straight away!

This is such a great conversation!  Kate is genuinely passionate about mental health and is so honest and open about her story.  She has done a huge amount of work to unpick what she went through and because of this she is able to have a real insight in to mental health.  There were a couple of points we discuss that really resonated with me and have actually led me to explore them further and begin to gain more understanding about my own mental state.  It’s that type of chat!

We talk about the different ways that anxiety presents itself, the pressures of high-level sport and everything that comes with that.  We also discuss identity and expectations.  We get in to the importance of building a support network, asking for help and being honest with the people around us.

You can connect with Kate on social media

Instagram - @crossy16

Twitter - @katecross16

She also hosts ‘The No Balls’ podcast which you can follow on Twitter @noballsTCP.

Please let us know what you think by dropping us a message, we are always happy to chat!  Give us a follow and a DM @propermentalpodcast on all platforms.

If you have a minute spare to leave a 5-star review on iTunes it really would be appreciated!

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!