The Duchess of Cambridge meets Anna Freud National Centre runner as London landmarks get headbands for ‘Heads Together’

Her Royal Highness personally thanked Rosa and the assembled runners for helping to change the conversation on mental health with Heads Together – the campaign she spearheaded with the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry of which the Anna Freud National Centre is a charity partner. You can hear more about Rosa’s motivation to run the marathon here and she will share her experiences of being involved with the campaign after race day (and a well-earned rest)!

Following their workout, the Duchess and runners then crowned the Palace's Royal Mail box with a Heads Together headband. Around 70 post boxes on the London Marathon route will wear Heads Together headbands to match those being provided to all 39,000 runners, which they can wear on race day no matter the cause they are running for.

Meanwhile, across London, Prince Harry met runners collecting their race numbers at the opening day of the London Marathon Expo. And many more will have also heard from Prince Harry today, with all runners receiving a very special recorded video message giving them news that they can find their Heads Together headband in their race pack which they can wear to be part of the national movement to end the stigma around mental health once and for all.

As the London Marathon’s Charity of the Year, Heads Together wants to make it the ‘mental health marathon’ to get the country talking about mental health. As well as the 39,000 runner headbands and iconic dressed post boxes, in the run-up to race day, internationally recognisable landmarks across the capital will also be getting behind the campaign by donning headbands.

Look out for a headband wrapped around one of Battersea Power Station’s enormous chimneys, a digital headband adorning the London Stadium and the London Eye and National will also look a little off-colour when they are illuminated blue to match the colour of the headbands. The wax versions of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Jonny Wilkinson and Will.i.am will also feature temporary headbands at Madame Tussauds.

If you'd also like to show your support and wear an online headband, Heads Together have also teamed up with none either than social media heavyweights Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter all of whom have created exclusive innovations. Twitter have released a custom emoji of a smiley face wearing a Heads Together headband which appears automatically when you use the hashtags #TeamHeadsTogether and #oktosay. Snapchat have created a celebratory filter which superimposes a virtual headband onto images and Facebook have similarly created a headband that can be added to profile pictures.

So, in the final leg before the marathon, whether running, supporting or sharing, please join us in making it #oktosay and get your headbands on in support of Heads Together. You’ll be in excellent company!