Swindon Town pair Cian Harries and Ellis Iandolo have been taking part in the ‘Save an Egg Challenge’ initiative, a creative local awareness campaign aimed at sharing tips with young people on coping with anxiety.
It’s all part of the EGG Talk Project, setup up by a group of youngsters from the town, which not only aims to highlight one of the most common mental health problems among young people and share advice, but get high profile individuals and organisations onboard to help spread the word.
The group, led by 31-year-old Ieva Delininkaityte and working in collaboration with Create Studios, a Swindon-based digital production company whose profits go into teaching film to young people, have been using the humble egg and asking people of all ages to come up with creative ways to catch one.
Regardless of whether it’s caught or dropped, those taking part are then asked to share a handy tip to the masses around coping mechanisms to help them overcome the challenges anxiety poses. The catching challenges are filmed and then shared across social media to spread the word.
Speaking to Town’s Media Team, Project Lead Ieva said: “One in twenty young people across the UK have a generalised anxiety disorder, so we wanted to create a safe space for the anxious mind online.
“We want youngsters to be able to access useful information on the topic on our social media channels so they no longer feel alone and can seek the support they need, with useful links to charities and organisations that can provide professional help.
“We held discussions with several young people across Swindon beforehand to see what health related topic was affecting them most, and they chose anxiety. We not only wanted our campaign to be impactful, but have a fun element too which encourages lots of youngsters to get involved.
“We’re delighted to have Swindon Town Football Club on board, and a huge thank you to Cian and Ellis for taking part – they were really good sports. Their involvement has helped raise awareness of the campaign, and it was a great experience to visit the clubs training ground.”
Cian and Ellis were tasked with carrying out some rather energetic catches to test their reflexes in all sorts of different positions, and the Town duo didn’t disappoint.
Speaking to Town’s Media Team, Ellis said: “This is a really good campaign and a really creative way of raising awareness and understanding around a topic that many young people often find it difficult to talk about.
“It was a pleasure to be involved and glad I could share some helpful hints that I hope will help others, and of course encourage some of my friends to get involved with the campaign too.”
Check out our socials where we’ve posted our video, and why not encourage your friends and family to follow suit and share your short films too?
Simply type in @eggtalkproject into the search bar on Instagram to take part, and for more information around anxiety.
