Hussain Manawer's space trip for ‘mental health sufferers’

A 24-year-old from Essex in Britain who won a global competition to go into space has dedicated the planned trip to “every single person who has suffered from mental health”.

Hussain Manawer, from Ilford, was chosen as the winner of the One Young World competition at a ceremony in Bangkok.

He beat entrants from 90 countries to win the trip, which will see him travel more than 90km above the Earth into the area between the atmosphere and outer space, where there is no gravity. The trip will take place in 2018.

Mr Manawer, who was a torch bearer during the 2012 Olympics, initially submitted an audition tape after spotting the competition on Twitter.

Speaking in the Thai capital after winning the competition, he said: “This spaceship, I want to dedicate this to every single person who has suffered from mental health, every young boy, girl, man, woman who sits in their bedroom crying and you don’t know why, everyone who avoids mirrors because you don’t like what you look like.

“I want to tell you, if you are suffering from mental health it is absolutely fine. Welcome to the club, there are seven billion of us.”

Once Manawer was announced as the winner, the summit was shown his entry video, which consisted of a spoken word poem addressing his battle with mental illness.