Ruby Wax

Over the last few months, at work, we've been putting a lot of time into co-ordinating a big festival of events for World Mental Health Day on 10th October. Now, with about 3 weeks to go, preparations are reaching fever pitch...

On and around the day there'll be music, film, theatre, art exhibitions, a masked ball, comedy and loads more going on at lots of venues and locations across the city. All aimed at raising awareness, tackling stigma and having fun!

One of the highlights of this year's festivities has been a creative writing competition on the theme of 'Mental Health and Me'. We had loads of fantastic entries in 6 categories - poetry, short stories, diary/blog entries, letters, journalism and tweets - and the winner will be announced at an event at Central Library on World Mental Health Day itself, when shortlisted authors will read their pieces in public.

And who better to make the announcement for us than Ruby Wax?! Comedian, actor, writer, TV presenter and mental health campaigner - she seemed like the perfect choice. But would she want to help us out? Turns out she would!

Our colleagues at Writing on the Wall made the introductions and, since Ruby's in town tonight on her Sane New World tour, we had the ideal opportunity to pop down to The Playhouse and film her making the big announcement about the competition winner. Sorry, I can't reveal who it is...!

Here she is doing her piece to camera.

It was great to meet her and it's given us a big boost that she's lending her support to our work!

Best wishes to all you Blippers in Scotland on the eve of this momentous vote. I know many of you have been pretty stressed recently and I'm thinking of you all and sending love from south of the border, however you'll be voting. Rarely can a decision have been given more heartfelt consideration by so many people. You've all got a lot to be proud of.

(If only I'd taken this picture yesterday... The perfect musical link would've been 'Ruby Tuesday'. But, since it's Wednesday, I'm going for this...)