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A couple who set up a community theatre group for people struggling with mental health issues say they have helped people 'turn their lives around' by giving them a space to tell their story.

Kate and Bill Rodgers founded the Stepping Stone Theatre Group in Gainsborough over five years ago, inspired by Kate's own personal journey with bi-polar and depression.

Kate, who is originally from Canada, was just 23 when she was first hospitalised following a mental breakdown shortly after she left university and has spoken candidly about her experiences.

(Image: Clive J Maclennan)

She said: "I've been mentally ill for around 30 years now. I like to call it an illness as I feel that's exactly what it is.

"There were lots of signs early on that something wasn't right. I went to drama school and there they teach you how to open up and they make you go through all these emotions and perform these exercises that would otherwise make you look insane.

"I was really bolstered up and regularly praised for my talent. I was hailed to be on course for great things and then I left drama school and things just stalled.

"I found myself in a teaching job, teaching drama students despite never having acted professionally in my life. I felt like a fraud and the weight of everything just hit me. I cracked."

(Image: Clive J Maclennan)

Kate spent two years in and out of hospital. Throughout this period, she was chained to hospital beds and sedated by hospital staff whenever she screamed. Kate says that she attempted to take her own life on multiple occasions.

After a period of recovery spent living with her mother and sister, Kate travelled to Edmonton in Canada to perform her one woman play she had written about her experiences titled 'Cracked Up'.

She said: "When I started talking about mental health, nobody else was talking about it.

"I wanted a way of speaking about my experiences that made people laugh and I did that. My play was funny. I performed my one woman play at the Edmonton fringe festival and that's where I met Bill who came to my show and loved it."

Kate and Bill, an actor who has appeared in a number of British TV shows including Doctors, travelled the country together performing shows. Eventually, the due returned to the UK to settle in Lincolnshire, where they raised their two sons who are now 19 and 21.

(Image: Stepping Stone Theatre)

Inspired by Kate's experiences, Bill wanted to get involved in charity work and a project that would help those struggling with mental health issues to talk about their experiences.

He attended numerous networking events across the county and eventually secured funding from the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to set up the Stepping Stone Theatre Group, which has now been running for five years.

Bill said: "For our first session, we sat there and nobody came. This happened for the first five weeks.

"Then eventually, one chap turned up with his girlfriend and shortly after him, a young woman arrived with her support worker.

"Over the weeks, the number gradually grew and we realised that we needed more space to rehearse so we approached the Trinity House Arts Centre who have provided us with space to rehearse."

The theatre company now say that they have regular referrals from the crisis team, Trinity House psychiatric centre and P3.

Bill said that it brings them pride that they are able to help people turn their lives around.

He said: "We have one lad who has been with us almost since the beginning. When he came to us, he was suicidal, he'd attempted to throw himself from Trent Bridge and he had been referred from the crisis team.

"At the time, he was working one day a week at a local Pizza Hut. Now he's turned his life around, he's been working in a full-time role for the last 18 months at Acis Housing.

"We celebrate the fact that people come to us and are able to find their voice and their confidence to speak out."