Hello! My name is Henry Leahy and I am the democratically elected Member of the UK Youth Parliament (MYP) for Rochdale and the Pennines. I was elected back in February of last year and the three key points which I was elected on was that I wanted to improve the quality of the facilities which young people within the borough have access to, improve mental health services for young people and improve the quality of the school meals young people have and the nutrition which they contain, as well as reducing the price of them as the cost of living crisis becomes an ever more present problem affecting young people.
Since being elected, I have met with a wide variety of different young people and adults, both inside and outside of the borough, in order to maximise progress made during my time as MYP. Some of these events include meeting with local environment teams, different mental health organisations and local Councillors. In addition to this, I have also spoken publicly a number of times, allowing me to push forward my manifesto points on a larger scale. For instance, last summer I spoke at Hull university to the other MYPs across the country, about the affects that mental health is having on young people and what they can do in order to try and prevent this. Also, I attended the annual MYP meeting at the House of Commons in November and was fortunate enough to speak about the affects that discrimination is having on the mental health of young people in the borough and across the nation.
Outside of being MYP, there are many things which I get up to. I am currently in year 11 at Wardle Academy. I play a number of sports including football and golf, as well as doing Karate. All of these sports I have done since a very young age and they have become a key part of my lifestyle. I play Bass trombone in my school brass band and am a member of Wardle explorers. I will be attending the 25th world scout jamboree in south Korea later on this year.
Thank you for reading this article and I hope that it allowed you to get to know me as a person and MYP a lot better. Below will be some links about the work I have been conducting as MYP!