Vince Cable

Whitton woman Nuala Dempsey, who has spent years caring for her mentally ill father, is to try to raise money for the charity MIND by walking across the jungles and mountains of Peru.

Vincent Cable has sponsored her and is encouraging local people to support her too: "Nuala is a brave lady who is willing to confront publicly the issue of mental illness in the family and is now taking on what, for her, will be a major challenge: hiking across some of the toughest terrain in the world in this sponsored charity walk".

"I very much welcome the focus she is giving to mental illness, which is a cinderella service within the NHS: always short of staff and cash. I feel strongly about the subject since my late mother suffered several years of breakdown, though she fully recovered. I also have a romantic link with mental health illness since I met my late wife, Olympia, when we were both nursing in a mental hospital. But, for the most part, the story is bleak and anything which Nuala and others can do to raise the profile of this issue is very welcome".

VINCENT CABLE WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR A PHOTOGRAPH WITH NUALA ON MONDAY. PLEASE CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY ON 07958 476371 or NULA DEMPSEY CAN BE CONTACTED ON 07746026907