Speaking on the morning of day one, 20th June, Dame Kelley Holmes will talk about the adversities she has overcome in her career, including how she has wrestled with depression and mental health.
Born in Kent in 1970, she took an early interest in athletics before serving as in the British Army, for which she was awarded an MBE.
“I’ve known what I wanted to do since I was 14: I wanted to join the army, and to be an Olympic champion. I’ve managed both.”
Kelly devoted herself to athletics full-time in 1997, going on to win a collection of medals in the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Sydney Olympics. In 2004, she set the world of sport alight by at Athens winning gold medals in the 800 and 1500 metres, the first British woman ever to do an Olympic double, and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year and became a Dame the following year.
The queen of British distance running had to fight a succession of personal battles to achieve so much. Dame Kelly Holmes has admitted she self- harmed in the run up to Athens Olympics in 2004, even considered committing suicide after after a series of injuries left her fearing she would never reach her potential.
“To know you can be a winner but to keep getting hammered by injuries, well it is enough to get anyone down so actually my journey was a roller-coaster of emotion, both psychologically and physiologically.
Since retiring from athletics she now helps others to fulfil their potential through her patronage of several charities, including her own Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, which focuses on giving young people the opportunity to fulfil their potential through sporting and physical challenges.
Last year the Health and Safety Executive identified that 11.7 million working days were lost in 2015/16 due to mental health issues. Providing emotional and mental health support is becoming widely recognised as one of the most important issues for health and safety professionals.
Following her keynote address, Dame Kelly will also be joining an SHP debate on mental health on the first day of the exhibition. SHP debates are a new feature of show, in which we will be tackling some of the biggest issues faced by practitioners.
Dame Kelly Holmes keynote address will take place at Safety & Health Expo, 20th June 2017, at London ExCeL. Join SHP on the front row by registering here. The keynote arena is sponsored by Honeywell.
