"In this area we have a fairly high rate of male self harm - male suicide as well."

"Your father said to get an education," she would tell him. He listened.

Born in 1935 into a working class family in Liverpool, a city hit badly by The Great Depression, he moved to London when he was around eight.

He shoplifted at five and, at nine, he was told to meet an older boy from his neighbourhood outside a factory to keep watch while the boy broke in.

Dr Campbell never turned up. He wonders how different his life might have been if he did.

After completing his national service in the RAF, he finished his first degree in psychology and theology while still in London.

Then, he moved north. Between 1960 and 1967, he worked as a baptist minister in Broughton, near Cockermouth, where he helped form rugby league side Broughton Red Rose's youth team.

The squad, coached by former Great Britain, Workington and Whitehaven star Harry Archer, included brothers Les and Peter Gorley, who went on to represent Great Britain together.

"Rugby League is the best social sport. I knew nothing about the game but there was nothing for kids to do.

"As far as I know none of the kids who played gave us trouble. A lot of lads who get into sport have kept themselves out of court."

At 28, Dr Campbell was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He was "devastated" and "didn't think I had a future".

But, still listening to his mum, he returned to studying and completed a law and criminology degree in Keele before going on to medical school in the city of his birth.

Over his career, he has worked in the health and prison service, dedicating his time to treating young offenders. He hoped to turn working class kids' lives around.

"I started my life trying to serve people from working class backgrounds and if I end my life that way I'll be happy."

The 83-year-old spent more than 40 years in the Midlands, where he was chair of managers at St Edwards Hospital, Staffordshire, and Stallington Hospital, and was leader of a district council. He's taught at Keele University and for The Open University.

He also helped to found the Stoke on Trent Night Shelter, now the Potteries Housing Association, and the North Staffs Rape Crisis Association.

In 1983, Margaret Thatcher called a general election and the Conservatives swept to a decisive victory over Michael Foot's Labour Party.

Foot's party had been fractured by the "Gang of Four", four MPs - Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams - who formed the Social Democratic Party after disagreements over Labour's policies.

Dr Campbell was the Labour candidate for Staffordshire Moorlands.

"We didn't hold the seat," he said. "Everyone blamed Michael Foot. In 100 seats we didn't hold we went into third place behind the Social Democrats in 82.

"I was one of 18 who stayed where we were. I knew it wasn't going to be a winnable seat."

Widowed after a 44-year marriage to Mary, he met up with Elizabeth, an old friend from Broughton, and has remarried.

The pair initially reconnected when Dr Campbell took over the Christmas card list after his wife passed away.

Elizabeth, who had never married, helped keep his daughters in dresses when he was struggling with his MS diagnosis in the '60s.

The doctor's daughter had bought a house in West Cumbria and, in 2008, he moved back to the area. Elizabeth had never been abroad but the couple went on 39 holidays until Dr Campbell took the role at Mind.

Initially he was volunteering infrequently for the charity but, in 2014, he took on the role of chairman. They've only had one weekend break since.

Loneliness

Social isolation is one of the biggest issues facing Mind in West Cumbria.

Dr Campbell explained how emptying mental health hospitals in the 20th century "put people on the fringes of society into isolated lives".

While at St Edward's Hospital, he saw patient numbers drop from over 1,700 to under 400 in nine years.

Initially, people were becoming "totally incapacitated" as, although they were "well cared for", spending decades in hospital "institutionalised" them.

"What sort of life does that give," said Dr Campbell. Now, with people living in society, he believes the great task is to integrate people into their communities.

"It's easier to keep people in barracks than get them out. That's the challenge. Many people are suffering in silence, partly due to a lot of stigma."

But, he says, there has been huge advances in recent years in people willing to talk.

Men

The biggest killer of males under 40 is suicide.

Dr Campbell said: "In this area we have a fairly high rate of male self harm - male suicide as well. Compared with other areas, we have a higher rate."

Why? "We're very privileged with natural resources here, but we're not that privileged for work and economic resources.

"It is skewed terrifically by Sellafield. In reality, we have many areas of deprivation, family and child poverty."

In 2015, 75 per cent of all UK suicides were male. This is often attributed to a cultural barrier preventing men seeking help, with men worried talking about their issues makes them less masculine.

With men, there is a "sense of shame and weakness" when it comes to mental health problems.

"We need, possibly in schools, to begin to talk through these issues. You don't change attitudes over night. Most schools are now more aware and seeking to make provision."

Dr Campbell now attends Cumbria County Council meetings on youth provision.

'Parity of esteem'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are among a number of high profile campaigners who aim to reduce the stigma around mental health problems.

"These things are useful," said Dr Campbell. "The challenge is to transfer that from the abstract to reality.

"The estimation is one in six people under-perform at work due to mental health.

"200 years ago we had the first factory acts because of dangers in the workplace. It shows how we protect employees from physical harm.

"Now, demands put on by organisations are not allowing a person to feel more than an insignificant cog. What does work is allowing people to talk."

He revealed some local firms now allow people to visit Mind for mental issues in the same way they would permit people to visit a doctor for a physical problem.

This is known as "parity of esteem", defined as 'valuing mental health equally with physical health'.

"There's no great shame in admitting it. You don't hide a sprained ankle. I had a guy who said if only someone senior had been prepared to say how are you feeling, he wouldn't have bottled it up."

Cinderella

NHS funding is always a contentious issue and, when it comes to mental health, it is no different.

"Mental health has been a Cinderella throughout my life and it remains a Cinderella," said the doctor. "That pushes demand onto ourselves [mental health charities]."

Like Cinderella, mental health issues have been seen as inferior to its sisters - "partly because other parts are 'more sexy', like wonderful transplants".

"The whole health service is under-resourced, one section needs money and others say they haven't got any either.

"We do need more money for the NHS from government."

Lack of funding increases the need to use resources wisely. Dr Campbell explained: "If you need to get tea into tea cups, you wouldn't throw it from the corner of the room.

"Blanket intervention wastes resources, it needs to be targeted.

"Medication is a good bridge from a distressed place to a better place.

"But if I don't get to the cause I'll be giving someone drugs until the end of their life.

"With common problems, like anxiety and depression, talking treatments are statistically more successful. Often medication and talking treatments together can be effective.

"The voluntary sector can give time that statutory care can't."

Holiday blues

Birthdays, Christmas and other holidays can be hard for people with mental health issues.

Feeling like you should be having fun, or thinking everyone else is having a good time, is tough if you're not enjoying yourself.

"TV tells you that everyone is enjoying themselves," said Dr Campbell. "There's an idea everyone is having a wonderful time, that is a bit of a myth. I suspect everybody has some sort of saddened Christmas recollection."

Dr Campbell sees a "reaction to major points in the calendar".

"If people are prone to low mood then holidays, Christmas and even weekends can be hard.

"January always produces a spike. Most of the time people want to talk about it, we tell them they are not unusual."

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