Kate Cross

Welcome to Proper Mental Episode 11 with England International Cricketer Kate Cross!

Kate 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.

You can catch up with me at www.propermentalpodcast.com or connect with me via social media @propermentalpodcast.

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Thanks for listening!