Meg is a powerful advocate for the importance of tackling mental health, especially among young people, and she draws on her own experiences to inform others. Originally from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, she grew up and went to school in the local area. Her family was the only black family in the street, making it difficult for Meg to find positive role models who shared her background, especially as many of her peers were being suspended or expelled for their behaviour in school. At thirteen, Meg was diagnosed with a variety of mental illnesses including anorexia, anxiety and depression, and had to struggle to manage her symptoms alongside her schoolwork. The last couple of years at school were particularly difficult for Meg, but she passed her A levels with some of the best results in her year, even after her school went into special measures.

By 2017, however, Meg had relapsed with depression and anxiety. On her 20th birthday, Meg attempted to take her own life and was rushed to hospital. Even at that crisis point, Meg did not feel that she received the necessary support. This was a situation that Meg was determined not to see repeated, and in March 2018, she decided to launch My Mind Matters Too.

My Mind Matters Too is a student-led mental health consultancy with one aim: putting young people's voices at the centre of discussions around their mental health. Over this last year, My Mind Matters Too has successfully held a number of workshops, a roundtable discussion at the House of Commons, five mental health panel events and more than fifty drop-in sessions for students who need support with managing their own mental health. This year, My Mind Matters Too led King's College London's first ever mental health and wellbeing festival, called Rise. The consultancy has also started a discussion series called Stripped Back with a live audience, which is about to run a UK tour.

Meg is now a special adviser to KCL, helping to improve the mental health support system of her university. She is also working with two hospitals, one in South London and one in Liverpool, looking at how to make the transition from the youth service to adult services easier for patients, including advising on how students can make the transition between a home and university GP to ensure a continuity of care and service, and she is set to expand her reach to several other universities and schools across London in the rest of the year to come.

Most recently, Meg was a keynote speaker at the Conservative Party Conference on a panel with the Minister of Education, and a keynote speaker at the All-Party Parliamentary Group university meeting about student mental health and wellbeing. Meg also appeared on Channel 5 in a programme dedicated to university mental health day.
Meg has been nominated for several awards in 2019 and will join the delivery team at One Young World in London to head up discussions about mental health and wellbeing. Meg and her My Mind Matters Too team will hold their first conference on World Mental Health Day in October 2019, and she is also working on a book which she hopes to publish in the following year. Meg's work led to her being headhunted to support Mental Health UK launch a new programme commissioned by Lloyds Bank to support building resilience in young people.

Meg hopes to have a future career in politics and is committed to ensuring that young people's voices are heard, but most importantly that they matter too.

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