Former boxer Frank Bruno opens up on mental illness battle

Former boxing champion Frank Bruno said he would “never be that brave” to take his own life as he opened up about his battle with bipolar disorder.

The 54-year-old, who has been sectioned three times under the UK’s Mental Health Act since retiring in 1996, said his latest relapse in August came just days after completing the Great North Run.

He told the Sunday Mirror: “My trainer George Francis, God rest his soul, took his life and it is the most terrible thing.

“I have known others too. But getting to that point, so low that you may take yourself off and end things, is not something that has ever crossed my mind. I’d never be that brave as to take my own life. It is mad, crazy.”

Bruno, who was crowned WBC world champion in 1995, said his latest admission to hospital came after he went “hell for leather” in training for the Great North Run and “hit a brick wall”.

“I started to get irritated, grumpy, I needed to rest,” he said.

“But it was my choice to go back into hospital. Going into hospital made me see I was overtraining. I was overdoing it. Now I take it easy.”

Bruno was first sectioned in 2003 and on another two occasions in 2012.

About one in every 100 adults has bipolar disorder at some point in their life, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists.