HUNDREDS of people are to take part in a mass walk in a bid to tackle mental health discrimination.

It is the first time the Walk A Mile event will be held in Glasgow and is expected to attract hundreds of mental health professionals and people with mental illness.

Chris McCulloch Young, 51, is leading the campaign after walking around the coast of Scotland relying only on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter.

The former social worker was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and was determined to change the way people thought about mental health.

Following the trek around Scotland and parts of Wales in 2011, he came up with the idea for the Walk a Mile event and held the first one last year in Edinburgh along with anti-stigma organisation See Me.

Now he is bringing the event to Glasgow Green on April 20.

Chris said: "Mental health professionals and mental health punters are both very alive on social media but there wasn't a lot of chat between the groups. There was stigma flying both ways.

"I thought it was a good idea to share a social space and walk a mile with somebody, the most it will ever take is half an hour.

"You could be talking about anything.

"The whole idea is to humanise people."

"Having a look at Glasgow there are so many green spaces to walk around.

"You walk in to Glasgow and it's the city that thinks its a village, everyone wants to talk to you and hear your story and tell you theirs.

"It's fabulous and I think it will be a great place for the walk."

See Me’s community programme manager Eleanor Ogilvie, said: “Last year we brought together hundreds of people to create Scotland’s biggest ever conversation to tackle mental health stigma.

"This year in Glasgow, we want to make it even bigger.

“What Chris has done around the UK is extraordinary and his actions have done so much to change the attitudes of those he has met.”

More information about the walk is available from www.letswalkamile.org