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Heartbreak leads to BBC young reporter of the year prize for bereaved Culloden Academy pupil


By Alasdair Fraser

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Catriona Munns has won Scotland's BBC young reporter of the year prize.
Catriona Munns has won Scotland's BBC young reporter of the year prize.

A moving piece of writing and video journalism by a bereaved Culloden Academy pupil has landed her Scotland’s BBC young reporter of the year prize for 2020.

Catriona Munns (17), from Croy, lost her father to a heart attack when she was 12 and struggled with mental health issues in the aftermath.

In her powerful 500-word piece, the sixth-year pupil details the heartbreak and turmoil she went through and argues passionately for better mental health support in schools.

From more than 2000 entrants across the UK, the budding journalist made the Scottish shortlist of 10 before learning she had won the main prize from a remaining three entrants.

She was also one of only 30 invited to tell their story on video for a BBC broadcast.

The competition, now in its second year, was judged by BBC editors, journalists and presenters including Huw Edwards, Nikki Fox, Tina Daheley, Ricky Boleto, Mim Shaikh, Katie Thistleton and Alex Jones.

“I would like to become a journalist and my friend spotted the competition and thought it would be really good for me,” she said. “We got calls to say they really liked my piece and, by February, the call came to say I was in the top three.

“They filmed my video in March and then we went to London for the awards ceremony – and I won!”

The work contrasts the normality of the evening before her dad Colin died in December 2015 with the suddenness of his passing at Raigmore Hospital the next morning.

She describes feelings of emptiness and loss through a six-month period where she was “alone in my thoughts”, with no outside help.

“That really triggered my mental health problems,” she said.

“When I finally talked to someone from the charity Cruse Bereavement Care they saved me, really. They were there for me at a time when I couldn’t open up to my family.”

Late in 2018, Ms Munns suffered what she describes as a serious breakdown, and again struggled to get the help she needed.

From September this year, the Scottish Government plans to begin enlisting mental health practitioners for every school and college, but the young prizewinner feels much more could be done.

She also urges anyone struggling with mental health to speak to somebody at the earliest opportunity.

“I know it will be hard, as I found, but you need to find someone you can trust and just talk to them,” she added.

“If you open up and someone listens, you will find the help you need.”

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