"Marius Romme bowled me over – he changed the direction of my life." – Mickey de Valda

We are extremely saddened to learn of the death of Mickey de Valda on the 20th September 2007. For ten years, Mickey de Valda was the chairperson of the English Hearing Voices Network, a voice hearer activist and steadfast supporter of fellow voice hearers. His long time campaigning work on behalf of the hearing voices movement will never be forgotten.

Mickey regularly spoke at public meetings, conferences and seminars in the UK and elsewhere in Europe and he always had something new and of significance to say to his audience, his message helping professionals and voice hearers think differently about the voice experience - and - most significantly giving space for the development of new hearing voices groups and other initiatives.

Mickey wrote extensively about his voice hearing experiences (see his chapter in called "Mind as Computer" in Raising Our Voices and "Hearing Voices: My own experience" (available from the Hearing Voices Network). His unpublished work "Schizo" a 700 page autobiographical account of his travel in the 1970´s and 1980´s, retelling his experience of fringe religious groups, voice hearing, his varoius interpretations of their meaning and his encounters with (and escapes from) psychiatric services. He also wrote a regular column, until 2005, for the Hearing voices Network Newsletter called "Mickey´s Update" and rereading them, it is clear that Mickey was an intelligent, sensitive man with loads of common sense and a wonderful sense of humour. You can read excerpts from "Mickey´s Update" here.

As a young man Mickey was diagnosed as having "schizophrenia" and was hospitalised on a number of occasions, including within a secure unit. As he said in the Hearing Voices Network Newsletter (Summer 2004) about a vist to Milan and hearing of the hitory of abuse of psyhiatric patients, he reflected on his similar experiences, "Like me, patients were tied to beds, but whilst I was only tied up for one week, these poor souls had been kept tied to their beds for months. Some of then were naked, with only a sheet to cover them. Admittedly, some of the pateints seemed wild and deranged, but what else can one expect in a system that obviously treats people no better than animals"

It was Mickey´s sense of social justice alongside unyeilding optimism that people can truely help themselves that made his contribution to the movement so important, as he once said,
"You may be sure the efficacy and the power of bringing people together to share their mental health problems with their peers will reach out to all parts of the world"

Mickey, we´ll miss you mate and by the way, you were right!

Mickey's funeral will be held on Thursday 4th October at 12:45pm at Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

If you wish, please use the message board below to pay tribute to, remember, share experiences and talk about Mickey and his work.