To mark World Mental Health Day colleagues from around the Edrington world today took part in a Microsoft Teams conversation with former Scotland international rugby star Graeme Morrison.

Graeme kindly shared his own mental health story, explaining that while he was at the pinnacle of a highly successful rugby career that saw him play for Scotland 35 times, he was privately battling with depression. He explained what it felt like to be playing in front of 80,000 adoring rugby fans one day, then the next day being overwhelmed by depression.

After retiring from professional rugby through a serious knee injury, Graeme retrained and is now a successful chartered accountant. But he feels a duty to speak about the dark period of his life when he was suffering from depression. It was inspiring to hear him talk about how he came through his personal battles with depression and that he is now in a much better place and feeling incredibly resilient.

Corporate Affairs Director Lindsay McGarvie asked Graeme to explain some of his coping mechanisms. The key for him, he told us, is to talk with friends and colleagues about our mental health. Graeme also took the time to answer a range of searching questions from Edrington people from places as far apart as the UK and US.

As part of our wider Wellbeing programme, today we are encouraging Edrington people across our international locations to get together during the week of 12th October for Tea & Talk sessions, either virtually, or in person where regulations allow and with safe social distancing, simply to have a cup of tea or coffee and a conversation about how we are feeling, share stories from recent months, support each other and help to break down any stigma that still exists around mental health.

Here’s to Tea & Talk. Cheers!