Ann Mooney, 54, chairs mental health charity Service User Network Swindon (SUNS), and was among those who recently criticised X Factor judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini for insensitive comments about mental illness following a performance by one of her acts. Ann lives in Liddington and is married with four sons and two grandchildren.

ANN Mooney gave a wry smile as she recalled an experience when she and a SUNS colleague were collecting donations in a supermarket.

“The vice chair was doing some bag packing at the tills, and a lady came up and said, ‘I’ve got to come and tell you that the lady at the till, that lovely, bubbly old lady, was so lovely and friendly and you’re so lovely and friendly, and without people like you helping these nutters, they would be locked away and the key thrown away.

“I said to her, ‘What would you say if I told you that that beautiful lovely old lady and myself were among those nutters?’ “She quickly threw some money in the bucket and walked away.”

Ann saw no need to rebuke her further.

“She had already said we were lovely people, so if nothing else she learned that day that people with mental health issues were not dangerous, ‘nutty’ people.”

It was in this same spirit of combating prejudice and stigma that Ann spoke out against Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who quipped about straitjackets after a contestant sang Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy in the X-Factor’s Halloween edition.

“I was quite taken aback by it due to the fact that I know people who, years ago, were taken away in straitjackets. I know the effect it had on them.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean it in the way she brought it across, but for people who constantly get told ‘you’re mad, you need to be put in a straitjacket and locked away,’ what does it feel like when they see something like that on TV?

“We don’t get taken away in straitjackets; we don’t get handcuffed or thrown into padded cells.

“We just see doctors like anybody else, like somebody with diabetes, somebody with cancer, somebody with any illness.

“So why can’t they drop the stigma around mental health, that we’re crazy, dangerous people?”

Something else she and her fellow volunteers at SUNS fight against is the ‘othering’ of people with mental health issues.

“A lot of people don’t admit they suffer from mental health problems – or don’t even know that they do.

“I remember once I gave a talk on mental health and asked everybody who had suffered a mental health problem to stand up.

“Only two people out of about 180 stood up, so I asked all the women who had suffered from post-natal depression and every woman in the building stood up.

“So I said, ‘Why didn’t you stand up when I asked if you had mental health problems?’ and they all said it wasn’t mental health.

“Well, post natal depression is mental health. I don’t think there’s understanding around mental health.

“A lot of people see it as dangerous, scary people rather than somebody who’s very low or very depressed or suffering from post natal depression.

“Mental illness is just something you can’t see. If I wrapped a bandage around my head, everybody would feel sorry for me. If I broke my arm, somebody would help me if I was carrying shopping.”

Ann is originally from Pinehurst, one of seven children whose father left the household and whose mother then had to cope with her large family.

Ann spent some time in care, and had a rough time which left her with mental scars.

At the age of about 14 she was in a horse riding accident which damaged the temporal lobe – the part of the brain that regulates the senses.

“I started hearing five different voices,” said Ann. “They’re five different male voices. One is quite nice, three aren’t very nice but there’s one really nasty one. They’re constant. They don’t go away.”

Ann believes stressing her own experiences is vital in dispelling ignorance. “How do we stop this stigma if we don’t tell people?”

She was married at 17 and by 18 was running a hotel in Devon with her husband. After their return to Swindon, Ann owned a successful bridalwear business.

Then, about 27 years ago, a family bereavement compounded her existing mental health issues and she was admitted to the Seymour Clinic, which has long since closed its doors.

There, in the most horrible way imaginable, she was inspired to fight for fellow patients.

“It was absolutely disgusting, appalling.

“The treatment and the care we got there...well, there wasn’t any. The patients had to look after each other.

“There were some bad people in there, and they were getting away with it.

“Innocent people such as myself were being put in lock-up, not because we were bad but to be kept safe from them.”

Ann later spent time at a hospital in Northampton, and was successful in legal action taken over her treatment in Swindon.

“I realised that I wanted to do something in my life to help people like myself, who had been treated very badly in mental health care.”

She first became involved with SUNS about 15 years ago and began developing its services.

SUNS offers a range of social and practical activities, from computer sessions to assistance in dealing with officialdom.

It is open to service users on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am until 2pm and can be contacted on 01793 436174 between 9am and 5pm.

Its listening line is open to all, operates from 6pm until midnight every night of the year and can be reached on 01793 332520.

SUNS is funded entirely by donations and a current goal is to recruit 3,000 people to give £1 per month. Its website is swindonsuns.org Ann added: “I thank everybody who allows me to help them because while I’m helping them, they’re helping me more.”