Donegal teenager pens touching mental health awareness song

The Donegal girl is now hoping that the song will help raise awareness and vital funds for mental health charities and organisations in Derry and Donegal.

Ellie-Rose said: “I wrote the song because there’s so many people who are suffering with their mental health and I wanted to let them know that there’s help available to them. I don’t want people to be suffering by themselves anymore so, I’m trying to help in any way I can.”

Ellie-Rose set up a GoFundMe page with her music video attached and all funds raised will be split between the following charities; Foyle Search And Rescue, Hurt, Zest, ARC, Samaritans, Lifeline, Me4Mental, CCIS extern and PIPS.

She said: “I chose these charities because I heard about all the great work they do in the city. I want to help raise money to be able to help both the younger and older generations who are suffering with their mental health.

“I was in with the mayor recently and I was telling him that there needs to be a detox and rehab centre for all the people suffering because there’s a long waiting list and, by the time people get seen, they often run out of time.

“I think mental health issues are more talked about now than they would have been years ago so that’s why I want to help. Social media really helps to spread awareness as well and you can see how badly the services are needed.”

Ellie-Rose has always loved singing and music, but it’s just recently she started going to singing lessons. “I went to piano lessons when I was younger and then I started getting singing and guitar lessons when I was around 12 or 13 to build my confidence up. It’s really helped, too. I started singing in front of my class and I’m going to start doing gigs in the future too to build myself up,” she said.

“I have an amazing producer called Eamonn Karran in Live at the Attic, who helped me so much with the video. I write the song and the music and he does all the tech and studio work for it so I’m really grateful for him. He’s amazing, the work really speaks for itself. I have a few more songs written and I plan on going back to Eamonn in the future to record them too.”

Denise, Ellie-Rose’s mum said: “I’m bursting with pride for what Ellie-Rose is doing, she makes me so proud every day.

“She was always into crochet and art and she started teaching herself how to play piano from Youtube before asking if she could go to lessons. She started doing singing lessons after that and, next thing we knew, she was writing her own songs. She had songs on Youtube and Spotify too and then she wrote Monster Inside My Brain.

“The week that she wrote the song, she was in bed sick with Covid and when I was bringing her lunch to her, she told me she wrote a mental health song. She contacted Foyle Search and Rescue and was talking to Rachael, who gave her a list of other organisations to contact to get them involved too.

“When she was thinking about the video, Ellie-Rose wanted her wee cousins and brothers involved in it. I asked Danny Quigley if he would like to hold a sign with a mental health quote, which he did, and he told us we should get more people involved like Serena Terry/Mammy Banter and Mickey Doherty, who were delighted to jump on board and support Ellie-Rose.

“We would love to thank everyone who donated so far and shared the video. We’re so grateful for the people of the city coming together and supporting her. All the organisations and Danny Quigley, Mickey Doherty and Serena Terry have been amazing. Everyone has really come together to support Ellie-Rose and help her raise awareness for these mental health organisations and we’re so grateful for that.”

Donations can be made here to Ellie-Rose’s fundraiser.