David Sweetsur is a media volunteer at the Media Action Group. He is responsible for monitoring the reporting of mental health in the media, and replying when the coverage is negative or inaccurate. David is also involved in the group's current 'Local People, Local Lives' campaign, and writes his own anti-stigma blog. Here David tells us more about himself and his role:

"I grew up in Burslem, the Mother Town of Stoke-on-Trent, where I still live to this day. From attending school there, I went on to study at the Sixth Form College in Fenton, and later at the University of Wolverhampton, where I gained an honours degree in English.

I first became ill around the time I left for university. I began to feel very depressed and met with a lot of criticism and hostility, mostly from friends. Unfortunately, my illness turned out to be enduring, and over the years I have received several different diagnoses, from depression, to bipolar disorder to my current diagnosis of schizophrenia.

My own experience of being on the receiving end of discrimination from friends led me to approach the Media Action Group in 2007, when I took part in their 'TalkBank' project. Since then, I have done a lot of work for the group, and in turn this has helped my recovery, providing both a structure and meaning to my days.

Ideally, I would like to see an end to the stigma and prejudice that surround mental illness; hopefully our 'Local People, Local Lives' campaign is going some way to achieve this goal. Our campaign takes a refreshing approach, concentrating on the interests and achievements of our volunteers as residents of Stoke-on-Trent, instead of on their mental ill health. We encourage people to see that someone's diagnosis is only a small part of the whole individual.

I have many different interests, including reading, cinema, writing articles on mental health subjects for the journal Mental Health Occupational Therapy, as well as being something of a poet. A book of my poems was published in 2004. I am a firm believer that just because you have experience of severe mental ill health, it does not mean that you cannot live a varied and fulfilling life".