Olympic medallist set to visit Roscommon
Kenneth Egan will be a guest speaker at the Percy French Festival on July 15th. Picture: INPHO/Oisin Keniry
Olympic boxing silver medallist Kenneth Egan, will deliver a talk at this year’s Percy French Festival, at Castlecoote House on Wednesday, July 15th.
Kenneth, now a qualified psychotherapist, will talk about his childhood, his early boxing career and his Olympic silver medal in Beijing in 2008.
Post Beijing loneliness, isolation and anxiety took hold and Kenny found himself ill-equipped to deal with his exalted status, turning to alcohol to ease this transition.
Years of alcohol abuse and mental health issues ensued and it was a visit to the graveyard with his mother that became the trigger to seek help with his addiction.
This led Kenny down the road of education, sobriety and ultimately redemption to the point that he is now a practicing counsellor in the areas of abuse/addiction, mental health and resilience to name but a few areas he focuses on.
His talk will be incredibly candid and thought provoking, in which he will address several themes: most notably the pivotal influences in his life, how elite sports people are more vulnerable to issues relating to anxiety, mental health and addiction than most and above all how we are losing the art of good conversation.
While a daily ticket to the festival is €50, a special student admission rate of €20 applies on the Wednesday, when mental health will be a theme of the day.
In addition to Kenneth Egan, there will be a number of other speakers on mental health issues.
The Percy French Festival runs from Wednesday July 15th to Friday July 17th and tickets can be purchased by clicking here.
