It has taken more than 40 years for Lisa Rodrigues to talk about her mental health difficulties. She hopes her candour will help others who are struggling at the top

A year before she left her position as the chief executive of a mental health trust, Lisa Rodrigues wrote about her depression and anxiety, which began when she was 15 years old. ‘I’d been secretive about it,’ says Ms Rodrigues, who qualified as a nurse in 1977 at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. ‘But I thought I’d kept it secret for long enough. It’s about destigmatising.’