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Looking at Eddie Hall, ‘The Beast’, World’s Strongest Man champion, stood next to 14-year-old James Rimmer, you could hardly believe this pair would have anything in common.
But when the two met at Hall’s favourite gym, the world-famous Strength Asylum in Stoke-on-Trent, it soon became clear that there’s a lot that Eddie and James can relate with each other about.
At the end of 2018, James’s mental health was at its very lowest point. Despite being one of the brightest young men you could ever hope to meet, his Dysgraphia had robbed him of his ability to write. Schoolwork was almost impossible.
Then, the bullying started. The laughing. The name calling. Then it turned physical. As much as the confident James stood up for himself, a gang of tormentors were determined to keep him down.
With his family life going through changes at home, everything was beginning to pile up for James. His behaviour transformed. He began to voice his frustrations out in class. Spending more and more time in isolation at school only made his mental health deteriorate further.
It reached a breaking point. James was frequently being sent home from school in a state of complete emotional distress.
Out of desperation and love for her son, mum Lisa followed the suggestion of a mind-set coach and take James out of school.
It would prove to be the turning point in the young man’s life.
“Since reaching rock bottom mentally at the end of last year, I felt I had no choice other than to take James out of the school system and home educate him,” says Lisa.
“We went through a lot of repair time. James started watching a lot of really positive YouTube videos about mental health and it really struck a chord with him. He was always a fan of Eddie Hall too, the World’s Strongest Man. He looked up to him as inspiration.
“We started working on James’s strengths which were quite clearly entrepreneurial type skills. He buys and sells second-hand scooters using the shed in the garden to do work on them.
Lisa and James soon started work on his Business Studies IGCSE qualification. It was around this time that James saw a video on YouTube promoting the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal – a campaign to help create the first dedicated Children’s Hospital in the East Midlands.
“James has an incredible imagination and always thinks big, so when he saw about the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal, he came up with this grand idea entirely on his own for how he could raise money for the appeal.”
James’s idea was simple – create and sell special teddy bears that children could have to help comfort them and reduce their anxieties whenever they were away from home. James knows first-hand how difficult it can be and wanted to help other children to feel calm and comfortable no matter where they were.
After pitching the idea to his grandad Dragons Den-style for funds to get the project off the ground, James decided to name the bears ‘Home Eddies’. With every bear sold, James decided that a proportion would be donated to the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal.
“He’s always been full of ideas and has plenty of other projects going on, but Home Eddie is the one that he feels passionate about,” says Lisa.
“James was extremely excited about the bears and raising as much money as possible for the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal and so he was determined to make it a reality.”
Demonstrating his keen eye for business, James worked with his mum to design and launch his very own website for the project – HomeEddie.co.uk – so people could buy the bears online for their own children or even for children in hospital.
It was then that James’s efforts caught the attention of ‘The Beast’ himself – Eddie Hall. After hearing about the project and the bears named in his honour, Eddie invited James to meet him at his home gym in Stoke-on-Trent to learn more about his story.
Having spoken publicly about his own mental health in interviews and on his social media channels, the 2017 World’s Strongest Man has nothing but praise for what James is doing and how far he’s come.
“I think what James is doing is fantastic,” says Eddie.
“Mental health is so important. I can relate to James so much. I know what it’s like. I had to leave school when I was around his age too. I was never academic.
“But like me, he dreams big. He’s got big ambitions for what he wants to do to help children like him and raise money to support the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal, just like I had to dream big to become World’s Strongest Man.
“These Home Eddie bears are a really great idea. If he keeps going, I think he’ll be able to achieve anything he puts his mind to.”
For Lisa, the turnaround she’s seen in her son over the last year leaves her so excited for his future.
“I’m so proud of James,” she says.
“He has battled through a lot of mental health issues this year, including anxiety. As any parent knows, it can feel totally heart breaking. But how James has transformed this year just shows that when you work with a child’s strengths and find that magic switch to flip, boy do they fly!”
There are no concerns for Lisa about any long-term effects from what James experienced while at school either.
“James is so clear that part of his life is closed,” she explains. “He’s not looking back. He doesn’t want to be a victim of it and he doesn’t want it to define him. He’s just going forward.”
A donation from each Home Eddie bear sold goes to support the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal. Bears can be purchased online at HomeEddie.co.uk.
To learn more about the Leicester Children’s Hospital Appeal, or to donate to the appeal, visit DoThemProud.com.
