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Former England Captain Jamie Peacock MBE Addressing Well-Being

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Former England rugby league captain Jamie Peacock MBE is pulling on his own personal experiences to address mental health and well-being.

The Leeds Rhinos icon has today launched a well-being programme focused on simple daily actions to create strong well-being habits.

Be A Champion draws upon all areas that Peacock has taken from sport and adapted to ‘the real’ world, enabling him to cope with retiring from sport and the impact of the pandemic.

The 43-year-old is also supporting home learning for children in the UK during the current lockdown. Peacock has partnered with Schools Advisory Service and will today, 18 January, be delivering a free virtual wellbeing presentation to 3,000 students, with every student receiving a copy of the book. Peacock will be delivering further sessions, once a month, during the lockdown restrictions.

Public Health England’s mental health & wellbeing surveillance report found that self-reported mental health and wellbeing worsened during the first national lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms peaked in 2020.

Peacock’s inspiration for Be A Champion comes from years of playing international sport at the highest level. Since retiring from playing, he has been successfully mentoring and has run programmes for the NHS, HSBC, McDonalds and many more.

To mark the launch of the programme, Peacock said: “Throughout my entire career I have faced adversity and encountered many challenges which have impacted my confidence and ability to perform at the highest level. I have had to constantly bounce back, build myself back up and come back stronger to achieve all the successes I have in my career.

“No matter what I knew I was able to accomplish on the field, it was only ever achievable through working on my overall well-being and looking after myself physically and mentally.

“In these challenging times I want to help everyone to turn their lives around and despite the many struggles we are facing, make small changes to positively impact on your life.”

Be A Champion is a first-of-its kind interactive programme for all abilities which will help individuals make small daily behavioural changes in their life to help re-wire the brain and create new habits in four key areas;

  • Positive Mindset
  • Eating Healthily
  • Sleeping Well
  • Being Physically Active

The programme is delivered initially in the form of a book, but also blends virtual with physical to help keep individuals motivated with an initial video presentation and weekly videos from the former Leeds and Bradford captain.

£2 from every sale of the programme, designed for everyone, will be split across two charities that are close to his heart; MND and Greenhouse Sports.

Peacock raised over £50,000 for MND by running an Ultra Marathon in October in support of his former teammate and close friend Rob Burrow who has tragically been diagnosed with MND.

More information about the programme, which is now available, can be found at: www.jamiepeacock.co.uk/30-day-wellbeing-programme/

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