People

Will Young's twin brother Rupert has opened up to BBC Berkshire about his former depression, alcoholism and self-harming and how he overcame mental illness to keep looking forward to the future.

He said he wanted to remove the stigma of depression and self-harm by talking openly about it.

"I suffered from self-harm from the age of 14 to 23. I am a recovering alcoholic. I drank from the age of 14 until the age of 23. It almost killed me and I almost ended up in prison."

Rupert dates the start of his depression to his first years at boarding school. Until then, he had an idyllic childhood growing up outside Hungerford, camping outdoors and playing in the woods around their home.

He said: "At boarding school I was always being compared to my brother. Looking back, my teachers could have been a bit more positive. I got into a situation where an older teacher used to regularly beat me up.

"I started acting up. I went through the whole of my schooling rebelling, I had a deep loathing for myself and then as soon as I turned 15 I started drinking.

"I never had any aspirations, I never had any goals. I thought I was useless."

Rupert on his pedalo to support Mood Foundation

Soon Rupert was self-harming. He has only recently been able to wear short-sleeved tops again, as his arms were so badly scarred from his self-inflicted cuts and burns. He even made attempts to end it all.

And as Will went on to undreamt of success as a pop idol, Rupert sank deeper into alcoholism and depression.

He said: "I was living in hell. My life, in my mind, was not worth living.

 "I was living on the streets two years after Will had won Pop Idol, drinking with tramps. 

 "It was only when I was willing to engage in some kind of treatment that the road to recovery really began."

Rupert slowly recovered thanks to a team of private therapists and a stint in a treatment centre in Arizona.

After returning to a normal way of life, he decided to set up a charity called the Mood Foundation which helps people suffering from depression and mental illness to access private therapists quickly.