Shirley Tart: Harry the Brave has opened door on dealing with mental health issues

In all my long career, I have never been anywhere more extraordinary than London during that week between the shocking death of Princess Diana and her funeral six days later.

People were wandering around the streets looking lost, displaced and often in tears.

Banks of flowers grew by the minute outside Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and any other likely monument while police trying to keep some control (and move the occasional bunch from the road back on to the pavement) were being threatened by those in the depths of something approaching grief-induced hysteria if they dared to touch so much as a petal.

Meanwhile, as the week went on and the crowds grew by the hour, there were persistent demands for the Queen to come home and comfort her people.

The fact that Her Majesty was at Balmoral doing her best to comfort two shocked and bewildered little boys who had just been told that their mother was dead, was totally lost on those who believed her place was in London with the thousands gathered there and who believed their needs came first.

When our stalwart Queen did return the day before the funeral, she and the Duke of Edinburgh in the black of mourning, came out of the main gates of Buckingham Palace, almost hidden under flowers. And we held our breath. Surely, the restless crowd would welcome her with affection and not a stony silence. Then someone in the crowd applauded quietly … and everyone followed.

So this was just part of the extraordinary drama we witnessed that week.

And meanwhile, back in Scotland, two little boys were having to come to terms with the loss of their beloved mother.

Is it any wonder that they have struggled all these years since? And the nation, yes the whole nation, should give thanks to and for Prince Harry who was just 12 at the time, has admitted that for all these years, he tried his best not to think about his mother, certainly not to dwell on her death, and to move on with life.

Now, he has finally admitted that he couldn’t do it without help. So 20 years on, he asked for that help. And even more of a brave move for someone so in the public eye, he has now told the world. In so doing, Harry the Brave, has opened a massive door into dealing with mental health problems. Especially for young men and especially any so well known.

Harry, William and his wife Catherine have also set up the Heads Together charity which promotes good mental well-being and are doing all they can to keep that door open for everybody who needs to go through it.

“I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” says the young Prince who also served his country on the military front with courage and commitment.

And I think back to that dark day in London when two little chaps in their best suits walked slowly and solemnly with their father, their grandfather and their uncle, behind their mother’s coffin through the streets of London and in to the great Westminster Abbey.

I could see the boys were within my sight during that service and all I can say is that seeing them just broke my heart.

Now, Prince Harry and his brother are doing their best to save other hearts from breaking, to help with mental health issues, no matter how far down the line, to open up communications, however tenuous, to help the mentally wounded have better lives. We hope and pray that Harry himself will finally find peace and comfort as he and William mark the 20th anniversary of their mother’s tragic death in a Paris tunnel.

I salute this young man who deserves all our support and thanks!