“When they say you got to be sectioned you’ve got to follow them because the police were there, and doctors were there, and everybody was treating it like a circus.
“I still remember quite a lot, they gave me the needle in the backside to sort of like calm me down. And afterwards, I had to take tablets and take these injections each week.
“They say I’ve got bipolar. I never used to be able to understand bipolar, but I do understand bipolar now. It makes you spend a lot, do crazy things, a lot of energy.
“Sometimes when you’re down, then you’re up like 100 miles an hour.
“It’s very, very challenging,”
Despite his previous struggles, Frank said his health at the moment is “very good”.
He said: “I train and I look after myself every single day. So yeah, my health is very good. I do all different routines. This morning I got up at 4 o’clock, but I had a run in my gym and whatever. I can use a sauna and a steamer. So yeah, I keep it real.”
“I do miss boxing. I miss the cheques mostly. I also miss the excitement of being in the boxing ring.”
Asked if retiring from the sport was difficult, he tells Patrick: “Yes, it was very difficult. My trainer George Francis once said to me, ‘The biggest fight is going to be when I finish boxing’. I didn’t know what he was talking about until it happened to me.
“It’s like someone was drawing out all the strength and all the enthusiasm that I had. About a month after I finished boxing, I was sitting down and getting lazy, putting on weight, getting a Teletubby.
“But I mustn’t grumble. I come from a humble background and whatever, and I’ve done very well for myself. I look outside. I’ve got some nice wheels. I look inside and I’ve got some nice suits hanging up. I’m very, very blessed, and I’m very, very grateful for what I’ve got. So I can’t really grumble.”
The retired champ set up The Frank Bruno Foundation in 2017 to support others suffering with mental ill health. Based in Northampton, the Foundation has supported thousands of people.
But Frank says the Foundation is now at risk due to a drastic drop-off in the donations it relies on to survive.
Detailing the struggles with his foundation, he writes in Bruno: Still Fighting: “It’s not easy at the moment. Donations are drying up, and money is tight, and I’ve had to use my own personal savings to keep things on the straight and narrow. I’m determined we will make it a success. However, the nurses and care workers who are not on high wages need to be paid. Unless we get a serious, and I mean a serious, cash injection, we are going to have problems.
“There’s too much at stake if we go to the wall. But I’ve learned over the years that we can’t rely on politicians to sort out the mess we have in mental healthcare. They all talk the talk, but very few walk the walk.”
To buy a signed copy of Bruno: Still Fighting, visit https://www.frankbruno.co.uk/product/frank-bruno-signed-new-book-still-fighting/
