Gray starts mental health awareness campaign

Women aged 18 to 30 have the highest rate of depression of any age group except women aged 80 and over.

Ms Gray, who counts her monthly book group night with friends as part of her strategy for mental health, said she would love to be part of a mentoring scheme. Her own experience began at university in Wellington where she was “just not coping”.

“Everything was just too hard,” she said. “I didn’t really know about depression or anxiety, so I just thought I wasn’t trying hard enough when I wasn’t coping. Over the next years that spiralled into depression, which was on and off through my twenties.”

She had many friends, but she didn’t talk about it with them.