Image via Youtube.
Mike King has been named Kiwibank’s New Zealander of Year. The comedian-turned-mental-health advocate was awarded the title by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a gala dinner last night.Chief judge Cameron Bennett said King was a "wonderfully complex and compelling Kiwi". "His determination to shine a light on the effects and impacts of mental health, particularly among Māori and young people, is as uncompromising as it is confronting.""Mike's in your face, brutally honest and hugely funny, he doesn't back down," Bennett said. "It's that courage and resolve that makes him so relatable to at-risk rangitahi that others can't reach, Mike King is a great New Zealander of the Year.”King hung up his successful career in comedy to dedicate his time to raising awareness for Aotearoa’s devastating suicide rate, among the highest in the developed world. In 2009 he founded the support group The Nutters Club, which later became the Key to Life Charitable Trust. The Trust worked with mental health professionals, business and schools to reach its long-term goal of a zero suicide rate and offered support to those in crisis.King also sat on the Government suicide prevention panel but quit last year because he believed the draft plan was deeply flawed. "I knew the day I started on the panel in 2015 that I was going to be leaving when they started talking about funding, when they talked about starting with a blank piece of paper."More recently, in 2018 King alongside five other speakers set off on his I Am Hope tour. The group travelled from Cape Reinga to Bluff on 50cc Suzuki scooters to start a nationwide kōrero around youth suicide. Their aim was to reduce the stigma around the issue and empower communities to connect with struggling young ones.