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Jonny Benjamin

Awarded an MBE for Mental Health Campaigning & Subject of the Film ‘The Stranger on the Bridge’
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About

Gender: Male
Languages: English
Travels from: United Kingdom

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Biography Highlights

  • Jonny Benjamin is an award-winning mental health campaigner, best-selling author, film producer, public speaker, and online vlogger, has a compelling and inspiring story that he retells when hired as a speaker. Jonny’s journey from suicidal ideation to founding the Beyond mental health charity is truly inspiring.

Biography

About Jonny Benjamin

  • Awarded an MBE for Mental Health Campaigning
  • Subject of the Film ‘The Stranger on the Bridge’
  • Responsible for the ‘Find Mike’ Social Media Campaign
  • Popular YouTuber

An inspirational mental health campaigner, Jonny Benjamin is a YouTuber and mental health speaker who is dedicated to promoting the importance of wellbeing. Having had a well-publicised battle with mental health, Jonny has used his experiences to deliver powering mental health talks to audiences everywhere showing them the importance speaking out if they are struggling.

In 2014 Jonny launched a social media campaign called ‘Find Mike’. The purpose of the campaign was to find the man who stopped Jonny from taking his own life back in 2008. Unable to remember his name Jonny called him ‘Mike’ and the campaign went viral reaching South Africa, Australia and Canada. Two weeks later Neil Laybourn was confirmed as the man who stopped Jonny from leaping to his death in London. Jonny’s story gripped the nation and was later even made into a documentary film The Stranger on the Bridge. During his mental health speaking events he regularly discusses this moment in his life and the realisation that he was not alone.

Having struggled with mental health disorders since he was 10 years old, Jonny suffered from auditory hallucinations and schizoaffective disorder and at its worst he believed he was in a version of The Truman Show with millions of viewers enjoying his misery. This led him to his lowest point where he found himself standing on Waterloo Bridge ready to end his suffering. Persuaded by passer-by Neil to walk away and carry on living, he now aims to destigmatise mental health and during his speaking events shows people that there is a way to break the cycle.

Alongside his insightful mental health speaking engagements, Jonny has become one of the internet’s best-loved bloggers. He uses his popular YouTube channel to reach out to others who are suffering with mental health difficulties drawing thousands of views and subscribers from around the world. He documented his journey to India for his YouTube channel taking part in a number of important mental health campaigns.

Additionally, Jonny has launched his own foundation, Beyond, which aims to intervene when young people are suffering from mental health conditions. With three-quarters of all mental health disorders beginning in adolescence he believes that there is not enough help out there for these young people and his foundation aims to bridge the gap.

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Books

he Stranger on the Bridge: My Journey from Despair to Hope

‘In my world, the word inspirational gets bandied around a lot, but Jonny Benjamin is truly deserving of that adjective.’ – HRH The Duke of Cambridge In 2008, twenty-year-old Jonny Benjamin stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump. A stranger saw his distress and stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved Jonny’s life. Fast forward to 2014 and Jonny, together with Rethink Mental Illness launch a campaign with a short video clip so that Jonny could finally thank that stranger who put him on the path to recovery. More than 319 million people around the world followed the search. ITV’s breakfast shows picked up the story until the stranger, whose name is Neil Laybourn, was found and – in an emotional and touching moment – the pair re-united and have remained firm friends ever since. The Stranger on the Bridge is a memoir of the journey Jonny made both personally, and publicly to not only find the person who saved his life, but also to explore how he got to the bridge in the first place and how he continues to manage his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Using extracts from diaries Jonny has been writing from the age of thirteen, this book is a deeply personal memoir with a unique insight on mental health. Jonny was recognised for his work as an influential activist changing the culture around mental health, when he was awarded an MBE in 2017. He and Neil now work full-time together visiting schools, hospitals, prisons and workplaces to help end the stigma by talking about mental health and suicide prevention. The pair ran the London Marathon together in 2017 in aid of HeadsTogether. Following the global campaign to find the stranger, in 2015 Channel 4 made a documentary of Jonny’s search which has now been shown in 14 territories.

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he Stranger on the Bridge: My Journey from Despair to Hope

Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies
'In my world, the word inspirational gets bandied around a lot, but Jonny Benjamin is truly deserving of that adjective.' – HRH The Duke of Cambridge In 2008, twenty-year-old Jonny Benjamin stood on Waterloo Bridge, about to jump. A stranger saw his distress and stopped to talk with him – a decision that saved Jonny's life. Fast forward to 2014 and Jonny, together with Rethink Mental Illness launch a campaign with a short video clip so that Jonny could finally thank that stranger who put him on the path to recovery. More than 319 million people around the world followed the search. ITV's breakfast shows picked up the story until the stranger, whose name is Neil Laybourn, was found and – in an emotional and touching moment – the pair re-united and have remained firm friends ever since. The Stranger on the Bridge is a memoir of the journey Jonny made both personally, and publicly to not only find the person who saved his life, but also to explore how he got to the bridge in the first place and how he continues to manage his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Using extracts from diaries Jonny has been writing from the age of thirteen, this book is a deeply personal memoir with a unique insight on mental health. Jonny was recognised for his work as an influential activist changing the culture around mental health, when he was awarded an MBE in 2017. He and Neil now work full-time together visiting schools, hospitals, prisons and workplaces to help end the stigma by talking about mental health and suicide prevention. The pair ran the London Marathon together in 2017 in aid of HeadsTogether. Following the global campaign to find the stranger, in 2015 Channel 4 made a documentary of Jonny's search which has now been shown in 14 territories.
Buy the book
Buy the book