AFTER fighting back from a traumatic childhood, a songwriter from Calne wants to change the perception of mental health and encourage those suffering to rally together and get past their troubles.

Kiana James taught herself to read and write as an escape from her troubled upbringing and but now the 41-year-old has decided to bite the bullet and release her new song, Battling Your Cries, performed by Alphonso Archer and Will Lawton, before its official recording to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.

"It has gone quite well but it has been really overwhelming," the Quemerford songwriter said. "I felt really nervous on Monday after it went out but I have realised now why I have done it. What I have gone through in my life I know I have to be brave and talk about it and in a way it was my last day of therapy.

"My end goal is to change the views of mental health and that was why I had to get it out in time for Mental Health Awareness Week. I want to tell people you can survive a childhood trauma and achieve anything you want."

The song, which was written to encourage people to reconsider how they think about mental health, was adapted from a series of poems Ms James wrote eight years ago when her passion for writing really took hold.

She said: "Writing was an escape for me and that it truly makes me feel alive. When I was younger, I used to go through so much and I used to make all these songs up in my head and by the age of 12, I just couldn't stop writing.

"This song was adapted from a series of poems I wrote in 2009 and we got together in April last year to start putting the song together. I went through some really tough times and I didn't know how I was going to carry on with my life at one point but I realised I loved myself and that I was capable of doing this.

"I wouldn't change what I went through at all because it has made me who I am today and Will and Alphonso have been brilliant. This is just the start for me."

To listen to Battling Your Cries visit https://youtu.be/xalYyQrZlEM.